Tennis balls, kites, wet jute sacks, safety goggles and sports gloves – these items became defensive weapons of choice for protesting farmers at the Punjab-Haryana border on Wednesday, as they sought to bring down drones used by police to fire tear gas shells to disperse the crowd.

As the farmers from Punjab resumed their efforts, for a second day, to march towards the national capital, more than two dozen youngsters took the reins to counter the police’s strategy to fire tear gas shells at Shambhu, along the border with Haryana.

“We are more prepared today to counter the police action. We want to protest peacefully but the Haryana government seems to be adamant to hurt the peacefully protesting farmers,” a senior farmer leader said, seeking anonymity.

On Tuesday, the protesting farmers were taken by surprise as Haryana Police used drones, which were initially deployed to monitor the law and order situation, to fire tear gas shells to prevent them from breaching multiple layers of barricades to proceed towards the national capital.

At least 60 farmers were injured in the firing. Visuals from the area showed farmers running towards nearby farmland on the sides of the road as police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse them. Farmer leaders were heard asking protestors to use wet clothes to minimise the impact of the tear gas shells. The protesters were seen covering fallen tear gas canisters with jute bags to contain the smoke.

A day later, the farmers resumed their efforts to march towards the Capital, the youngsters could be seen flying kites in order to bring the drones down by entangling the unmanned aerial vehicle in the kite strings.

“As of today, we are fully prepared. We have also made our strategy. We are using kites to shoot down the drones,” Ramandeep Singh Mann of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (non political) said.

Some farmers said that locally made armour was purchased at ₹2,000 a unit to protect oneself from rubber bullets, which, they claimed, were fired by Haryana Police.

Farmers also used safety goggles to protect their eyes from the gas emitted by the tear gas shells. Sports gloves helped them to remove the tear gas shells from their protest site.

“Tennis balls are handy to bring the drones down. We used stones on Tuesday but that left several people injured,” Parteek, a young farmer, said.

The protesters stationed water tankers at the site and used wet jute sacks to defuse and reduce the effect of the tear gas shells. As the fired shell landed on the ground, they rushed to cover it with the wet sacks.

“The tear gas shells fired by the Haryana Police have red chilli powder mixed with the gas. Many of the youngsters had to be admitted to hospital after inhaling toxic tear gas,” another farmer Gurwinder said.

Taking note of the protesters’ measures, Ambala deputy commissioner Shaleen asked the Patiala administration to take action against farmers flying kites, alleging the use of Chinese strings.

Shaleen said that the Ambala administration received an official communication on the use of tear gas shells from its Patiala counterpart late on Tuesday and are analysing it.

On Wednesday, Patiala deputy commissioner Showkat Ahmed wrote to Shaleen, asking Haryana Police to “refrain from such acts (firing tear gas shells) and restrict them within their (Haryana) territory”.