In a path-breaking move, the mines ministry on Saturday Oct 15,2016 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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