Coal India using space technology to curb pilferage and illegal mining

After surpassing coal output of 600 million tonne (mt) last fiscal, state-owned Coal India is banking on space technology and mobile apps to control pilferage and illegal mining.

The company has come up with the Coal Mining Surveillance & Management System (CMSMS) portal, developed by the coal ministry in coordination with Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Application and Geo-informatics and the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology.

Under the CMSES framework, the maps of the coal blocks and coalfield boundaries have been geo-referenced and superimposed on the latest satellite remote sensing images. The system can scan a region of 100 meters around the existing coalfield boundary to identify any unusual activity that may be illegal coal mining. All such identified activities are deemed suspicious and a trigger is generated with a reference number.