Parliament Question: Mining Surveillance System

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF MINES LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3946 ANSWERED ON 12.08.2026 MINING SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM 3946 SHRI G KUMAR NAIK: Will the Minister of MINES be pleased to state: (a) the number of suspected illegal mining instances detected through the Mining Surveillance System (MSS) and other remote sensing tools during the last five years, year and State-wise; (b) the details of districts identified as illegal mining hotspots, the criteria adopted for such identification and the number of MSS alerts generated in each such district, State and UT-wise; (c) the number of MSS alerts verified, cases in which illegal mining was established, penalties imposed and the value of minerals recovered or compensation realised during the last five years, State-wise; and (d) whether the Government has reviewed the enforcement performance of States with recurring illegal mining hotspots or low verification rates and if so, the details and findings thereof along with corrective measures taken? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR COAL AND MINES (SHRI SATISH CHANDRA DUBEY) (a): During the last five years (2021-22 to 2025-26), total 679 triggers have been generated through Mining Surveillance System (MSS) and 42 cases of unauthorized mining has been confirmed. The state wise details of triggers generated during last five years and field verification thereof are furnished in Annexure-I. (b): As per Section 23C of the MMDR Act, 1957, State Governments have been empowered to frame rules for prevention of illegal mining, transportation and storage of minerals (both major minerals and minor minerals) and for purposes connected therewith. However, as per the MSS portal, number of triggers state wise, district wise, where unauthorized mining has been confirmed by the state government after field verification of the trigger are furnished in Annexure-II. (c) & (d): The Mining Surveillance System (MSS) operates as a supplementary tool, in addition to the systems already established by State Governments for detecting illegal mining. Under Mining Surveillance System (MSS) triggers generated toindicate unauthorized mining are sent to the respective State Governments for field verification. The verification of triggers are done by the district-level officials of the respective State Governments. Further, Illegal mining is under the purview of State Governments as per Section 23C of the MMDR Act, 1957, whereby State Governments are empowered to make rules for preventing illegal mining, transportation and storage of minerals and for the purposes connected therewith. Accordingly State Government take action on detection of illegal mining through such triggers and hence the details of penalties imposed and recovered or compensation realized in the cases made on the basis of MSS triggers are available with the concerned State Governments. *****Annexure-I Status of state wise details of triggers generated during last five years and field verification thereof. 2023-24 2024-25 2025-26 Total State 2021-22 2022-23 No. No. No. No. of No. of of of of Una Unaut No. Unau Unau No. Unau No. No. uth No. horis of thori No. thori of thori of of oris of ed No. of MS sed of sed MS sed MS MS ed MS Minin Unauthorised S Mini MSS Mini S Mini S S Mini S g Mining Cases Tri ng Trig ng Tri ng Tri Trig ng Trig Case Identified gge Case gers Case gge Case gge ger Cas ger s rs s s rs s rs s es s Identi Ident Ident Ident Iden fied ified ified ified tifie d Andhra 8 0 12 0 67 4 28 4 9 0 10 0 Pradesh - - 2 0 - - - - 2 0 - - Assam 1 0 1 0 - - - - 2 0 0 0 Bihar Chhattis 76 0 23 0 8 0 29 0 10 0 6 0 garh 15 10 10 6 1 0 - - 29 17 3 1 Goa 15 1 14 0 19 2 3 0 85 7 34 4 Gujarat Himachal - - 3 0 5 0 1 0 9 0 - - Pradesh Jammu - - 7 0 13 1 - - 24 1 & 4 0 Kashmir (UT) Jharkha 17 0 7 0 6 0 1 0 36 0 5 0 nd 13 0 5 1 6 1 3 0 31 2 4 0 Karnataka - - - - - - 1 0 1 0 - - Kerala Madhya 16 0 24 2 26 3 6 0 99 6 27 1 Pradesh Maharashtr 12 0 7 0 3 0 0 0 25 1 3 1 a 4 0 22 0 12 0 9 0 57 0 10 0 Meghalaya 4 0 2 0 7 0 7 0 27 0 7 0 Odisha 11 0 2 0 10 0 3 0 40 1 14 1 Rajasthan Tamil 13 2 7 0 8 1 17 0 58 3 13 0 Nadu - - 3 0 1 0 - - 5 0 1 0 Telangana Uttar - - 2 0 3 0 - - 6 0 1 0 Pradesh 679 42 Grand TotalAnnexure-II No. of state wise, district wise triggers, where unauthorised mining has been confirmed by the state government No. of triggers where unauthorised mining detected by State / District State Govt. Andhra Pradesh 4 Guntur 1 Kurnool 2 Sri Potti Sriramulu Nellore 1 Goa 17 North Goa 6 South Goa 11 Gujarat 7 Gir Somnath 1 Junagadh 1 Kheda 2 Porbandar 3 JAMMU & KASHMIR (UT) 1 Pulwama 1 Karnataka 2 Mysore 1 Tumkur 1 Madhya Pradesh 6 Jabalpur 2 Katni 1 Satna 3 Maharashtra 1 Chandrapur 1 Rajasthan 1 Sirohi 1 Tamil Nadu 3 Dindigul 1 Karur 2 Grand Total 42