On April 28, Punjab DGP Gaurav Yadav announced that his force would deploy anti-drone systems along the International Border with Pakistan to counter the incursions by drones that are now being used extensively for smuggling narcotics and weapons into India.

He said the trials of anti-drone systems have been completed and these would be deployed as a second line of defence in coordination with the Border Security Force (BSF), responsible for the peacetime management of the entire border with Pakistan, a stretch of 553 km of which lies in Punjab.

In March, the Punjab Police had organised a demonstration of anti-drone systems at Mullanpur in Mohali district, which was also witnessed by Punjab Cabinet ministers Harpal Singh Cheema and Aman Arora. Contemporary anti-drone technologies were show-cased by three public and private sector companies at the event.

Over the past few years, drones have become the major means of pushing contraband into Punjab from Pakistan. The use of drones for smuggling began in 2018-2019, with initially larger hexacopters being used and occasional incidents being reported. Over the years, this activity has intensified and the trend has been to switch over to smaller drones that are cheaper and have lower visual and audio signature. These carry about half-a-kg load that is attached to them with adhesive tape or cords. Recovery of larger drones is now rare.

BSF officers say that drones are now the preferred mode of smuggling as their use does away with the need for traffickers on both sides to approach the border fence, which is risky due to patrols and watch posts. Drones can pick and drop consignments well away from the fence or check-posts and their use also gives smugglers the flexibility to choose the drop points.

Of the five BSF frontiers facing Pakistan, Punjab is the most active as far as drug smuggling is concerned, followed by the Sriganganagar area in Rajasthan Frontier, due to the proximity of dense habitations and numerous link roads along the border on either side.

In Punjab, the Amritsar-Tarn Taran belt accounts for the majority of drone incursions, according to the BSF.

In April 2025, so far, the BSF has neutralised about 35 drones, seizing over 40-kg narcotics and 25 pistols of various makes, sources said.

In the first three months of 2025, the BSF neutralised 55 drones and seized about 62 kgs of narcotics. All these items are believed to have been dropped by drones.

The small audio-visual signature of the drones used for smuggling and the wide swath of area they are used in makes it difficult to detect and neutralise. There are several types of anti-drone systems available that can meet the requirements for different levels of threat perception. Besides the BSF, the Army and the Air Force also have their own anti-drone and counter-unmanned aerial systems (C-UAS) equipment in place.

Besides government organisations like the Defence Research and Development Organisation and Bharat Electronics Limited, several private sector entities and start-ups in India have forayed in the arena of anti-drone solutions.

These systems employ various technologies like radar, optical sensors and radio frequency monitoring to detect, track and neutralise drones. This is done using a combination of ‘soft’ or ‘hard’ kill options, that is either intercepting and jamming the radio communication signals to and from the drones, thereby making them crash or diverting their course, or physically destroying the platform with guns, missiles or lasers.

Anti-drone systems are of varying sizes and capability. They can be manportable, which are primarily meant for detection and tracking within a small geographical area, leaving the neutralising part to other co-located systems, or larger integrated systems that are fixed or vehicle mounted. These have a longer engagement range and capability to simultaneously detect, track and neutralise multiple drones.

Most of the recovered drones are DJI Mavic series manufactured in China by a private firm based in Shenzhen, according to BSF officials. There have also been a few instances of locally assembled drones being recovered.

All captured drones are examined forensically to determine their place of origin, flight path and destination. The BSF has workshops for this in Delhi and Punjab. The drone workshop in Amritsar, established in August 2024, has successfully completed the technical analysis of over 200 Pakistani rogue drones to extract valuable information and develop future strategies to counter the drone menace.

The BSF has also developed its own intelligence wing to monitor the movement of drones and smugglers in border regions and many of its operations are based on these inputs.