The Indian Space Research Organisation will help the Ministry of Environment and Forest use satellite images to detect illegal mining in rivers, according to VK Dadhwal, Director, National Remote Sensing Centre, Hyderabad.

The Indian Bureau of Mines has been entrusted with the task of drawing the boundary lines for the sand mines, he told newspersons at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here on Saturday.

He was responding to a question on recent remarks by the Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar that the department plans to use satellite image technology by ISRO to map every river to check illegal sand mining.

Cartosat can be used to monitor mining activities and certify whether lease boundaries have been exceeded or any illegal mining activity is prevailing other than the leased area. However, it is not possible to quantify the amount of resources illegally mined.

“We can only detect whether the mining has gone beyond his boundary,” he said.

The indigenously built Cartosat series of satellites are a type of earth observation satellites with ISRO launching four such satellites in to the orbit for Earth’s resource management and monitoring.

They carry Panchromatic Camera to provide scene specific spot imagery. Imageries from the satellite are used for cartographic applications like mapping, urban and rural infrastructure development and management and in Land Information and Geographical Information System.

There have been many instances wherein senior government officials have been under attack trying to curb illegal sand mining. ISRO Chairman AS Kiran Kumar said that the organisation has already demonstrated the use of such technology.

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