Indian farmers are using kites to battle against drones that law enforcement personnel are using to disperse demonstrators using tear gas canisters.
For the past two days, thousands of farmers in India have fought pitched battles with security forces roughly 200 kilometers north of New Delhi. The situation comes after law enforcement authorities stopped the demonstrators' "Delhi Chalo" or "Let's go to Delhi" march to the capital.
The protests are part of the farmers' efforts to demand the local government provide higher prices for their crops. Representatives of the farmer's unions on Thursday met with government officials in an attempt to reach a solution for the current issues.
The farmers also brought their tractors and trucks along to the demonstrations and have used them, along with other farm equipment, as deterrents to the police action. Jute vegetable sacks are soaked in water and are used to contain the tear gas canisters while blowers disperse the fumes, as per Reuters.
On top of using kites, the farmers were also equipped with slingshots and flare guns as they fired against the police drones. In a statement, the general secretary of the Punjab Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee, Sarvan Singh Pandher, said that many people who joined the movement are veterans of the army, police, or other forces.
Many servicemen in the country's Punjab and Haryana states turn to farming in order to make a living after they retire. A 23-year-old protestor, Karampal Singh, said that law enforcement personnel were "forcing" farmers to act this way. He said, "Let them do what they want, we will find a solution."
On the other hand, law enforcement personnel are also using their own innovative tactics to control the protesters. Reports noted that this was the first time that security forces utilized drones to drop tear gas canisters.
Police sources said on Thursday that they were monitoring the situation closely to watch out for strategies and techniques that the farmer groups used in their skirmishes with Haryana Police. Delhi Police were able to procure 20,000 tear gas shells to be used in case of riotous situations, according to the Times of India.
Kites Versus Police Drones
Sources noted that the procurement of the equipment was made from BSF's Tear Smoke Unit at Tekanpur in Madhya Pradesh's Gwalior. The canisters will be distributed to the districts that are near the border areas.
Furthermore, deployment of law enforcement personnel at the borders and in central Delhi localities has now reportedly reached around 25,000. The Union home ministry has also sent roughly 85 companies of reserve forces to the capital and 150 companies of additional forces have been mobilized on top of local police deployments.
On top of using the usual sandbags and barbed wire, police have dug up strips of the road going to the capital and drilled nails into some stretches to prevent vehicles from moving forward.
Law enforcement personnel were also using devices that emit high-pitched sounds to stop the protesters in their tracks and have stocked up on lubricants to make the roads slippery if the farmers decide to use horses to advance, said the Straits Times.
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