Parliament Question: Effectiveness of surveillance system in detecting and preventing illegal mining

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF MINES RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 290 ANSWERED ON 02.02.2026 EFFECTIVENESS OF SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM IN DETECTING AND PREVENTING ILLEGAL MINING 290. DR. SYED NASEER HUSSAIN: Will the Minister of MINES be pleased to state: (a) whether the Central Government is aware that the satellite-based Mining Surveillance System (MSS), designed to detect instances of illegal mining, has generated 958 alerts of suspected illegal activity since its inception, but only about 51 per cent of these alerts have been acted upon by the State Governments; and (b) whether the Central Government is aware that a disproportionately high number of alerts under the MSS have been generated from the States of Meghalaya, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF COAL AND MINES (SHRI G. KISHAN REDDY) (a) As of now, a total of 1088 triggers have been generated in different States. Out of these 1088 triggers, in 669 cases, field verification has been carried out through field inspection, and in 96 cases, unauthorized mining was confirmed. Indian Bureau of Mines follows up with the concerned State Governments regularly, so as to complete the verification of the triggers. (b) There are a number of States including Meghalaya, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, where significant number of alerts have been generated. The number of triggers generated in a State depends upon various factors such as overall mining activity in the State, presence of minor mineral mines near major mineral mines, etc. *****