After conducting a successful run of aerial drones over 25 hospitals in Himachal Pradesh, Abban Habib, Kashmir’s drone boy, aims to link rural hospitals with city hospitals in the valley to tackle medical emergencies in the Himalayan region.
Hailing from Zakura area of Srinagar, Abban completed his 12th standard last year and is currently working with multiple companies in Himachal Pradesh to link rural hospitals with main city hospitals which is proving beneficial in the region.
“When I was in class 8th, I had an inclination towards innovations and I started working on drones. This idea struck my mind after Kashmir witnessed massive floods in 2014 and people suffered as emergency teams could not spot or trace them”, Abban said.
Moved by peoples’ plight of helplessness while waiting for relief or any medical assistance, Abban aspired to develop a drone that can be of some help during natural disasters.
“I saw many people suffer, some people were cut off from critical supplies as rescue teams could not reach them on time, so I decided to create something that can keep people going during such crises,” he said.
Abban says his drone can cover 66 kilometers of aerial distance with 6 kilograms of payload capacity.
Sharing his journey, 20-year-old Abban says that after completing his 12th, he decided not to go for formal education in engineering and opted for practical learning. For that, Abban convinced his father to follow his dream.
“My parents gave me the flexibility to follow my interests in developing drones and starting a business as I am a student with a unique educational philosophy. Unlike some other families, however, they didn’t push me to pursue a career as a doctor or engineer,” he said.
Abban says parental support is the backbone of everything; parents should also support their children in following their dreams. Practical knowledge is much better than theoretical knowledge,” he said.
The young innovator says that initially, he developed many drone models including a plane model which can go for maximum speed as compared to normal drones during emergencies.
“We have already connected over 25 hospitals in Himachal Pradesh and other states where it is proving beneficial to cater to the emergency services ,” he said.
About choosing Himachal Pradesh and not Kashmir, Abban said there were many restrictions, rules, and regulations, and a lack of financial support in Kashmir.
“For the past two years, I have been trying to get support to replicate the same model in Kashmir but so far I have got little support from the authorities, he said.
Abban says drone surveillance is much cheaper and safer to fly a camera-mounted drone during natural disasters, plane crashes, or anything.
“When disasters cause roads to be impossible, it can be nearly impossible to get needed supplies to victims in a timely fashion. Drones can assist in this effort, too,” he said.
Abban has also come up with a startup ‘Sky Robo Drones Company PVT LTD. This is being incubated at NIT Srinagar and Jammu and Kashmir Entrepreneurship Development Institute (JKEDI).
He says drones are a cost-effective way to speed up assistance to victims in almost any disaster situation.
“Now I am planning to replicate the same model in Jammu and Kashmir so that people can be benefited. The geographical conditions of Kashmir and HP are the same. There is a vast difference between the facilities in rural and urban health care to cater to the same drones that can prove faster and affordable,” he said.
In December 2021, he tested his drone during the mock practices conducted by State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) at Nigeen Club Srinagar.
Last year in January 2022, Abban’s drone was exhibited at a Defence exhibition in Ahmedabad Design Week (ADW) organised by a University in Ahmedabad Gujarat.
His contribution is also recognized by Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) and India’s first startup tech conclave 22 held by AICRA in New Delhi.
Abban has developed a website that enables users to connect to their drones and manage them. The drones are connected to the cloud and can be controlled from any location in the world with sufficient internet connectivity.
It has a panic button that people can press during any disaster so that the drone can automatically dispatch to scan the victim and deliver the supplies.
Apart from connecting hospitals through his aerial drones, Abban is planning to install a mechanism in drones that can help to combat man-animal conflict.
“The drone can do image-processing to monitor and tranquilize wild animals that are present in residential areas and can do so automatically. In addition to saving lives, especially where there is frequent animal-human conflict, it will also help wildlife officials with tracking and surveillance,” he said.
Abban says they also conducted the trials for this at Dachigam National Park, but it’s in the prototype stage and has not been completed yet.
He also said that the drone industry is a niche industry and the market is cutthroat, in order to stay relevant a company needs to continuously evolve and innovate.
H U Malik, father of Abaan told Rising Kashmir that they are operating at 25 locations in Himachal Pradesh and they want to replicate the same model in Kashmir keeping in view its geographical conditions.
“Even Abaan is working to link SKIMS Hospital; SMHS with GMC Baramulla and for that fly van has already been designated for the project,” he said.
Malik says it is his son’s dream to see this project working in Kashmir. “We want to connect SKIMS hospital with other tertiary, district hospitals of the valley. We appeal to concerned authorities to help us and we are ready to follow all SOPs in this regard,” he said.
