In a path-breaking move, the mines ministry today came out with mining surveillance system (MSS), a pan-India surveillance network using latest satellite technology, to check illegal mining.
Launching the system, Mines Minister Piyush Goyal hoped the technology will ensure sustainable utilisation of the country’s mineral resources.
“MSS will trigger an alarm whenever there is an instance of illegal mining outside permitted areas. Karnataka, which saw large instances of illegal mining in the past, stands to gain tremendously from this technology,” he added.
This technology will help design planned development of mining as also provide complete data of labourers working in the sector online, which will lead to better safety standards, the minister noted.
MSS is a satellite-based monitoring system, which aims to check illegal mining activity through automatic remote-sensing detection technology.
The Indian Bureau of Mines, on behalf of the mines ministry, has developed MSS, in co-ordination with the Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics (BISAG), Gandhinagar, and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY).
Khasra maps of mining leases have been geo-referenced in MSS, which are superimposed on the latest satellite remote sensing scenes obtained from CARTOSAT and USGS.
The system checks 500 meters around the existing mining lease boundary to search for any unusual activity relating to illegal mining. Any discrepancy is flagged off as a trigger.
There are in total 3,843 mining leases of major minerals in India, of which 1,710 are working and 2,133 non-working mines. Most working mines have been digitised. Efforts are on to complete digitisation of non-working mines and will be completed in 3 months.
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