HYDERABAD: In order to curb illegal mining, the State’s mines department is planning geo-fencing to map the boundaries given for mining lease. “We are in the final stages of geofencing, a process in which a virtual geographic boundary is created by use of GPS technology.
This will be achieved by the use of drones and remote sensing capabilities. A remote sensing agency will be keeping a tab on the mining sites and will inform if mineral is being mined beyond the specified limit,” BRV Susheel Kumar, director mines and geology department.
There were at least 23,381 instances in the last four years where precious minerals were excavated and tried to be illegally transported. There were instances of local leaders trying to steal these minerals. But their attempts were foiled to a large extent as a result of numerous instances of field inspections.