"If they move to a desert, the garment will slowly start changing its colour. The light and dark green will turn into yellow when the temperature crosses 55°C. Once the soldiers return to the plains, the light and dark green colour will return. This will help battalions that have to immediately move to new terrains and will save cost for the defence ministry," says
Amitava Bhattacharya, a scientist with the Coimbatore-based PSG
Institute of Advanced Studies.
Having pursued his PhD in developing camouflages for defence purposes, Amitava is a winner of the 3rd National Award for Technology Innovation for the year 2012-13, announced by the ministry of chemicals and fertilizers, under the category of research in the field of polymer science and technology. He has developed two types of camouflage materials that are now under consideration for mass production by the
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). While one can be used for making textiles, the other can be used to cover objects and structures.
"This is called chameleon camouflaging," Amitava says. "There are three types of camouflaging - visual, infrared and radar. My work includes all the three areas. The first product that I have developed is a textile made of nanocomposite materials. That is a flexible product, that can be bent and folded. It is dyed with a mix of four colours - black, yellow, light and dark green. The dyes are a mix of natural and synthetic materials," he told TOI.
