Union Minister for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy and Mines Piyush Goyal launched the Mining Surveillance System (MSS) through a video-conferencing in New Delhi on Saturday in order to track illegal mining around 500 metres of existing mines boundaries in 13 States, including Odisha.
On the occasion, he interacted with Government officials and mediapersons of 13 States about use of the MSS. He lauded Odisha for using i3MS tracking system for monitoring of illegal mining activities.
The MSS is a satellite-based monitoring system that would curb illegal mining activity through automatic remote sensing detection technology. Developed under the Digital India Programme, the MSS is the first of its kind developed in the world using space technology. The current system of monitoring of illegal mining activity is based on local complaints and unconfirmed information.
Under the system, the Khasra maps of the mining leases have been geo-referenced. The geo-referenced mining leases are superimposed on the latest satellite remote sensing scenes obtained from CARTOSAT and USGS. The system checks a region of 500 meters around the existing mining lease boundary to search for any unusual activity which is likely to be illegal mining. Any discrepancy if found is flagged-off as a trigger.
These triggers will be studied at a Remote Sensing Control Centre of IBM and then transmitted to the district level mining officials for field verification. The system also involves a mobile app that can be used by mining officials to submit compliance reports of their inspections.
The mobile app also aims to establish a participative monitoring system where the citizens can also use this app and report unusual mining activity, Goya said.
