CCTVs Fail To Pay Off, Himachal Pradesh To Explore Drone Technology For Monitoring Illegal Mining

The Himachal Pradesh government is exploring the use of drones to deal with the issue of illegal mining, Times of India has reported.

Earlier, Himachal Pradesh High Court had directed authorities to examine the use of drones in place of CCTV cameras and submit a report on 11 March 2019. The state government had installed CCTV cameras on a trial basis at four different locations.

“Installation of CCTV cameras for the purpose of monitoring illegal mining activities is not appearing to be as fruitful as was expected,” observed a division bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ajay Mohan Goel. In response to the observation, the advocate general had suggested that drone technology could be explored for monitoring illegal mining.

Money required for running trials of drone-based monitoring of illegal mining has been deposited with the Himachal Pradesh State Electronic Development Corporation as per the affidavit filed by the government.

The court was also informed that the installation of CCTV cameras was completed in Sirmaur district and installation in Solan, Kangra and Una districts was in progress.