Andhra Pradesh plans hi-tech war on mosquitoes

The war against mosquitoes is being proposed using optical sensors to capture their density, species and gender before moving in to exterminate them.

Three cities in Andhra Pradesh — Vijayawada, Vishakhapatnam and Tirupati — want to use modern technology to detect mosquito breeding before malaria and other vector-borne diseases such as dengue, chikungunya and zika become an epidemic.

The Andhra government has sent a ‘Smart Mosquito Density System’ proposal to the Union urban development ministry for approval and to provide funds so that the three municipal bodies can implement this first-of-its-kind project in the country.

The three municipalities plan to deploy 10 sensors per sq km. The entire system will require nearly Rs 4 crore.

A total of 1,850 sensors will be deployed across 185 sq kilometers of these cities Sensors fixed to electricity poles will be used to monitor density of mosquitoes along with gender and species. The devices will analyse and transfer mosquito density data along with location to a central database. There will be a control room application to provide mosquito density heat maps, which will help government agencies prioritise sprays.

The system will operate autonomously and use state-of-the-art internet of things (IoT) technology to alert health and other agencies of the need to treat geographic areas to control the mosquito population responsible for vector-borne diseases.