When two pillars of Madhya Pradesh tourism - its famed wildlife and multiple airports - meet, you have hooves and fangs roaming the runways.
Passenger safety is being threatened across airports in India's most centrally located state amid regular encounters with wild boars, jackals, panthers, nilgai, goats, stray dogs, sloth bears, wildcats and a range of other wild and domesticated animals.
On Friday, a SpiceJet flight from Mumbai carrying 49 passengers and a crew of six hit a herd of wild boars while landing at Jabalpur's Dumna Airport, the airline reported.
The Bombardier's de Havilland Dash 8-200 (twin-turboprop) suffered a tyre burst and was badly damaged but none of the passengers was injured. The airport has been shut till December 8.
This has been the most serious runway incident blamed on animals in the state in recent years, but other instances abound.
Some 18 jackals have been trapped in the past one year at Indore's Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Airport. Ten cages with traps have been placed along the runway but aviation experts say this is not enough.
Even Raja Bhoj Airport in state capital Bhopal has had multiple brushes with animals. In November 2012, a Jet Airways pilot spotted a pack of dogs on the runway and aborted takeoff.
A month later, a sloth bear was caught inside the airport and handed over to forest guards. The following year, airport security sighted a panther but forest guards failed to capture it despite using a goat as bait.
Airport director K. Gunasekaran said he had written to Bhopal's civic body to remove meat shops and abattoirs from near the airport, which abuts the densely populated localities of Gandhi Nagar and Bairagarh.
06/12/15 Rasheed Kidwai/The Telegraph
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Passenger safety is being threatened across airports in India's most centrally located state amid regular encounters with wild boars, jackals, panthers, nilgai, goats, stray dogs, sloth bears, wildcats and a range of other wild and domesticated animals.
On Friday, a SpiceJet flight from Mumbai carrying 49 passengers and a crew of six hit a herd of wild boars while landing at Jabalpur's Dumna Airport, the airline reported.
The Bombardier's de Havilland Dash 8-200 (twin-turboprop) suffered a tyre burst and was badly damaged but none of the passengers was injured. The airport has been shut till December 8.
This has been the most serious runway incident blamed on animals in the state in recent years, but other instances abound.
Some 18 jackals have been trapped in the past one year at Indore's Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Airport. Ten cages with traps have been placed along the runway but aviation experts say this is not enough.
Even Raja Bhoj Airport in state capital Bhopal has had multiple brushes with animals. In November 2012, a Jet Airways pilot spotted a pack of dogs on the runway and aborted takeoff.
A month later, a sloth bear was caught inside the airport and handed over to forest guards. The following year, airport security sighted a panther but forest guards failed to capture it despite using a goat as bait.
Airport director K. Gunasekaran said he had written to Bhopal's civic body to remove meat shops and abattoirs from near the airport, which abuts the densely populated localities of Gandhi Nagar and Bairagarh.
06/12/15 Rasheed Kidwai/The Telegraph
