Each time a question is raised in parliament about action taken to tackle illegal mining, rampant in the country, the Union Ministry of Mines responds with a refrain: the Mining Surveillance System (MSS) that uses satellites to detect illegal mining. When launched in 2016, the MSS was positioned as a panacea for India’s illegal mining problem. Piyush Goyal, then minister of state for mines, had said at the launch, “We are willing to go the full [sic] hog to ensure that illegal mining in this country becomes history.”The MSS was developed to detect illegal mining of “major” minerals such as coal, iron, copper and so on. However, by 2025, the ministry wanted it expanded to tackle illegal mining of “minor” minerals, such as sand and stone. But an analysis of records obtained through the Right to Information (RTI) Act by this author shows that the system has struggled to translate the data it generates into consistent action. States have routinely failed to act on the alerts as their interest in the system quickly waned.Since inception, the MSS has sent 958 “alerts” of illegal mining of major minerals to states. But state governments have acted on just 491, or 51% of these alerts, shows the RTI response. And even fewer alerts – just 14% – resulted in the actual detection of illegal mining.States with a large number of mines, such as Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya and Jharkhand, ignored the most triggers. In some states, including Madhya Pradesh, with a high number of operational mines, the backlog for inspection is over five years.The Mining Surveillance System integrates satellite imagery and geo-spatial data to detect suspected illegal mining. The triggers are sent to states for on-ground inspection. The triggers are generated within a 500-metre buffer around lease boundaries. Developed by the Indian Bureau of Mining and the Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics, it was launched in 2016. Credit: Mahmodul HassanThe numbers worsen when citizens use the application that accompanies the MSS. While they can use it to complain about illegal mining, physical verification was done in just 39% of their complaints, the RTI response shows.The deterrent from aboveTracking illegal mining has been difficult for authorities. There are over 3,007 mining leases for major minerals, covering more than 2,800-square kilometres of mined areas across India. Most are for limestone, iron ore and bauxite. Leases for minor minerals, particularly for sand mining and stone quarrying, are allotted and regulated by states, and their numbers are not available in a central repository.Between 2009 and 2023, authorities detected 12.74 lakh instances of illegal mining across the country, according to analysis of data presented in parliament over the years by this author. This translates to an average of over 91,000 cases being detected annually. The total figure for fines collected from such activities is also available from parliamentary data, but for only seven of these years – 2015 to 2023. Even that limited data reveals the magnitude of the illegal mining problem: Rs 6,770 crores were collected as fines and over 80,000 criminal cases were filed.MSS was launched with the hope that an eye in the sky would deter illegal miners and curb the menace for major minerals. “The MSS is a transparent and bias-free system, having a quicker response time and capability of effective follow-up,” states the note by Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) that developed the system with autonomous body Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics.Under the system, the lease areas of approved mines are plotted and satellite imagery obtained to detect any “abnormal subsoil activity” – any excavation or disturbance in the soil outside lease boundaries. On such detection, a trigger is sent to the IBM, which then determines if the excavation occurred beyond 500 metres of the approved mining boundary – the so-called buffer zone. Over multiple phases of implemetation and deployment of the MSS, the resolution of its satellite imagery kept improving.The responses of the Indian Bureau of Mines to the author’s RTI request were received in August 2025.But the system, including a mobile application linked with it, has limitations. It can detect violations only if surface soil has been removed. It cannot detect underground illegal mining, such as the widespread rat-hole mining in Meghalaya and Assam. It cannot detect excessive mining within lease boundaries either, though that is also prohibited by law. The system also relies heavily on ground inspections to calculate the quantum of illegal mining.A high-tech tool fails on the groundThe MSS can generate alerts of illegal mining, but the only way to translate them into enforcement is to inspect detected cases on the ground. And the data shows that this crucial part – ground inspection based on alerts – is failing.In 18 states, just 51% of the 958 triggers generated were inspected. Most inspections were answered in the initial years of the programme. But the interest in verifying triggers quickly faded, even though the MSS kept generating alerts in every phase.The RTI data shows a steady decline of follow-up. In 2016-17, states inspected nearly all triggers (97%) and in 2018-19, they checked 87%. But by 2021-22, inspections fell to 55%, then dropped to 29% in 2022-23 and just 13% in 2023-24. The data for 2024-25 is not available in the public domain, nor was it a part of the data provided in the RTI.The three worst-performing states in terms of using the MSS, according to the same RTI records covering the 2016-25 period, were Meghalaya, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, which have 281 mining leases for major minerals. The MSS generated 173 triggers in these states – 80 in Chhattisgarh, 37 in Jharkhand and 56 in Meghalaya – of which only 11 were inspected. And officials could detect just one instance of illegal mining, in Chhattisgarh.The RTI response reveals neglect of triggers generated by the MSS across 18 states.Take the instance of Meghalaya, where 30,000 illegal rat-hole mines exist. As of 2025, the state government had seized over 4 lakh metric tonnes of illegal coal across six districts. The MSS, which only looks at approved mines and not the illegal rat-hole mines, generated 56 triggers. Meghalaya inspected only 1 of them, and confirmed there was no illegal mining found.Citizen complaints about illegal extraction of minerals came from across the country, from iron ore mines in Karnataka to bauxite mines in Gujarat. But their questions and complaints, too, have largely gone unanswered. Across India, analysis of the RTI data shows, only 29 of 74 complaints filed through the citizens’ app linked with the MSS received any official response. Despite allegations of illegal blasting, encroachment of tribal land and lack of safety provisions, officials claimed not to have detected a single case of illegal mining.In October 2022, the data shows, a complaint was submitted about alleged illegal mining of limestone in Tamil Nadu’s Namakkal. However, the case was not inspected. Complaints from Tamil Nadu’s Ariyalur district in November 2022 mentioned a 32-hectare opencast limestone mine of Chettinadu Cement, and alleged that mining operations were located too close to patta land and temple land, “violating the mandatory 7.5-meter safety zone”. Complaints filed earlier, in March 2022, alleged that Ramco Cements Ltd. was starting new limestone mines in contravention of the Mineral Auction Rule, 2015.No action or inspection is recorded to have been taken based on any of these complaints in the RTI data, implying negligence by state authorities.The RTI response says, “No triggers have been generated within the lease area of major mineral.” That is because triggers are not generated within mining lease areas, but within a 500-metre buffer zone around them.Growing backlogThe growing backlog of alerts has been a concern since the MSS began functioning. In 2022, IBM wrote to state governments asking them to act on triggers. The Ministry of Mines also sent reminders in 2023. States were repeatedly called for training, and at least 179 officers were trained in using the MSS. In December 2024, a parliamentary standing committee on Coal, Mines and Steel directed IBM to follow up with the states again. In August 2025, the committee noted that the ministry of mines had not taken any action.Environment activist Neelam Ahluwalia, who campaigns against illegal mining across the Aravalli hills in Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat and Delhi, said that the government data exposes a “systemic failure”. “Letting nearly half the triggers languish for years undermines the entire purpose of monitoring,” she said.Ahluwalia believes satellite monitoring can be an effective enforcement tool. “But the same data also exposes how missing maps and sloppy documentation can cripple a high-tech system,” she said, pointing to instances where mining leases were never plotted in the database.Total triggers, total inspections, pending triggers and unauthorised mining cases detected by MSS. The grand total for all states records 958 triggers, 491 inspections, 467 pending cases and 72 unauthorised mines. Source: RTI response to author.Data show that in at least 95 cases, ground verification dismissed the alert as the lease boundaries were not mapped in the system. If those boundaries are not plotted or inaccurate, the system, even after generating alerts, becomes effectively blind. This limits the scope of investigating illegal mining.Ahluwalia said citizens are unaware that the MSS exists. “This makes it clear that not many attempts are made to publicise the MSS,” she said.Officials in the departments of mines in Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya and Jharkhand were contacted over email and phone. Officials at IBM were also contacted, with questions about the backlogs. However, no formal response has been received. This story will be updated if any response is received.UP’s surveillance cells go nowhereSince the launch of the MSS, the Union government has attempted to convince states to use it to monitor minor minerals. After all, 97% of all detected illegal mining is of sand and stone. “State governments have been asked to implement MSS for minor minerals by digitising all minor mineral leases by December end,” the Union government told the states in October 2016.Uttar Pradesh took the lead and set up an MSS cell to implement the system across 11 districts. The cell was tasked with digitising lease maps, analysing satellite imagery and forwarding suspected illegal mining “triggers” to district authorities for on-ground verification.A 2024 CAG report on illegal mining in the state showed that this effort yielded no meaningful result, as the MSS was not implemented effectively. The audit noted that while the Department of Geology and Mining directed District Mining Officers to submit joint lease maps to operationalise the system, the initiative failed to translate into effective enforcement.The mining officers in Sonebhadra and Jhansi, districts where mining is a widespread economic activity, were later specifically instructed to verify suspected illegal mining sites.In response, the district magistrate of Sonebhadra sought the deployment of a separate surveyor to inspect the flagged areas, while the district magistrate of Jhansi informed the department that the locations identified contained old mining pits where no active mining was taking place. However, the audit found no evidence in the records of the Department of Geology and Mining that reports on suspected illegal mining were submitted by the remaining 10 districts, including Sonebhadra.According to audit findings, the MSS generated 76 alerts that were forwarded to various districts. Yet, the mining department was unable to provide any documentation showing that follow-up action was taken on these triggers.The failure of the system had led to large scale illegalities, the CAG noted. Between 2017 and 2022, illegal excavation had been carried out in 268.91 hectares in the 11 districts, with at least 26.89 lakh cubic metres of minerals extracted outside lease boundaries.CAG also found similar issues in Chhattisgarh, as part of another audit, where the ministry had trained state officials to use MSS for minor minerals. Its 2023 performance audit report highlighted that, over five years after planned rollout, the MSS remained unimplemented due to issues such as lack of Global Positioning System or GPS-surveyed ground control points, non-standardisation of coordinates and mismatches between khasra (cadastral) maps and site coordinates during trigger verification.The report found that between 2017 and 2022, nearly 1 lakh cubic meters of minerals were extracted. CAG had used drones to find widespread illegal sand mining. Mahmodul Hassan is an independent journalist and researcher. His work focuses on the intersection of human rights, natural resource governance, policy and social and justice issues, with an investigative approach.