Mining Surveillance System (MSS)

This system is a satellite-based monitoring system (developed by Ministry of Mines & Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) in 2016) which aims to establish a regime of responsive mineral administration by curbing instances of illegal mining activity through automatic remote sensing detection technology.

• The system works on the basic premise that most minerals occur in the continuity and their occurrence is not limited to the lease area but is likely to extend in the vicinity. The MSS 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.
• A user friendly mobile app for MSS has been created in 2017 for the same purpose.
• In the initial phase, a total of 296 triggers across the country, 48 unauthorized mining have been detected and in the second phase, 52 major mineral triggers, have been detected across the country.
• Similarly, in respect of minor minerals, so far in 2018, 130 triggers have been generated, out of which 62 have been verified and in 5 cases unauthorized mining activities have been identified.

Ways to Improve

• State Government to implement MSS for the minor minerals also
• Existing Mining Lessees to use MSS Mobile App to report likely unauthorized mining activities outside their lease
• Proper feedback for improvement of the new system
• And leveraging UAV-Drones