Sand Mafia, it’s time to scuttle! ISRO satellites to now monitor illegal sand mining

After its successful Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) have had been in news lately for all the good reasons. What new we are hearing about this research organization now is that soon their technology would be used to keep a watch on illegal sand mining happening in the country.

This information was recently revealed by Prakash Javadekar, minister of environment, forests and climate change, at the Janata Darbar held in Pune. He said, “The technology is available with ISRO and we are organizing a workshop in Delhi where we will provide details about a plan that will use satellite maps of every river to check the activities of the sand mafia.”

He further told reporters that to execute it seamlessly, “…the state revenue officials who are in-charge of the sand mining activities would be educated on the ISRO technology (which will be used) in a workshop to be held on March 27 this year and each state will prepare its own plan based on the satellite images.”

There is also a possibility of the government roping in few private sector firms into the initiative.

While no more details are known about how and when ISRO would start the work, we hope that they sprung into action soon and prevent deaths of honest and hardworking IAS officials like former Kolar deputy commissioner D.K. Ravi, whose recent death has triggered nation-wide protests in Karnataka and elsewhere in the country.