Mobile App of Ministry of Coal for reporting illegal coal mining

The Ministry of Coal, has developed a Coal Mining Surveillance & Management System (CMSMS) software in coordination with Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Application and Geo-informatics (BISAG), Gandhinagar and Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), to use space technology for curbing illegal coal mining activity in the coalfield areas of country.

Khan-Prahari Mobile Applications is a tool for reporting any illegal coal mining incident through geotagged photographs as well as textual information by any individual.

Why CMSMS

In his address at the National meet on Promoting Space Technology based tools and applications in Governance and Development, in New Delhi on 7th September 2015, the Hon’ble Prime Minister has emphasised on the role of space science in achieving good governance and asked all departments to explore the effective use pf space technology.

In the recent past, the coal mining sector in India has been getting a lot of criticism for illegal activities related to coal mining operations. The current system of monitoring of illegal coal mining is based on local complaints and inputs based on unreliable sources. There is no robust mechanism to monitor the action taken on such complaints

About CMSMS

The CMSS is a satellite based monitoring system which can provide trigger for any coal mining like activity in the vicinity of the existing coal mining areas.

Developed under the Digital India Programme, CMSMS is one of the first of such surveillance system developed in the country using spatial technology.

CMSMS has been hosted on the National Centre of Geo-Informatics (NCoG) portal https://ncog.gov.in/CMSS/login

The system aims to establish a regime of responsive coal mining administration by curbing instances of illegal coal mining activity through remote sensing and detection technology

The system provide tool to public for reporting through “Khan Prahari” mobile application

The advantages of remote sensing technology based monitoring system are

Transparency : Public will be provided an access to the system

Bias-free and Independent : The system is based on satellite data

Deterrence effect : Eyes watching from the sky

Quicker response: The coal mining areas will be monitored regularly.

Effective Follow-up: The actions taken on triggers will be followed up at various levels like district mining offices, coal production headquarters, Offices of CMPDI and Ministry of Coal, GoI.

How CMSMS works:

The Maps of the coal blocks and coalfield boundaries have been geo-referenced.

The geo-referenced coal blocks and coalfield boundaries are 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 which is likely to be illegal coal mining. Any such ground signature identified will be treated as a suspicious activity and a trigger will be generated with a reference number.

These triggers will be studied by specialist groups identified by MoC, and then transmitted to the concerned nodal officials for field verification. A check for illegality in operation is conducted and reported back to the system and can be traced against the reference number initially assigned to it..

A user-friendly mobile app (Khan Prahari) Mobile Applications has been developed, which is a part of the system, for reporting any illegal coal mining incident through geotagged photographs as well as textual information by any individual.

The mobile app Khan Prahari, also aims to establish a participative monitoring system where the citizens also can use this app and report any unusual or illegal coal mining activity. The identity of the reporter will not be revealed by the system.