Satellites to keep tabs on MP’s minor minerals landscape
BHOPAL: Facing flak for its failure to check illegal mining, Madhya Pradesh’s mineral resources department has decided to use satellite surveillance to keep a tab on illegal mining activities of minor minerals in the state.
The mining department already faces manpower shortage with each district having only one inspector to monitor mining activities.
The satellite surveillance will help the department to have a bird’s eye view over its mining landscape, which is marred by illegal mining and violence by mining mafia.
The department has been using satellite monitoring and geo-referencing for mines of major minerals for the past eight months, and there have been over 40 triggers of “aberrations”.
The latest data from the mining department shows that this year, there have been 8,540 cases of illegal transportation of mining minerals, 461 illegal mining cases and 307 cases of illegal storage of mining minerals.
Director, mineral resources department, VK Austin told HT that the department, in collaboration with Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geo-Informatics (BISAG), Gandhinagar, will keep tabs on over 7,000 mines of minor minerals.
“We have sent our geologists to the institute, and we have started the process of creating a database of the maps with exact boundaries of the mines. The marking of the boundaries will end any ambiguity over mining area and miners mining outside the boundaries could be held accountable,” Austin said.
Geo-referencing means associating a physical location on ground or on a map with its spatial (GPS) coordinates through the use of satellite technology.
Deepak Solanki, assistant geologist in the state’s mineral resources department, who is coordinating the project, said the “experience” of using the surveillance system for major minerals prompted the department to use it for minor minerals too.
“The satellites had detected activity in the mines of minor minerals around the major mineral mines,” he said.
Solanki added that the department has started mapping and geo-referencing minor mineral mines from Barwani district.