A study by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Ropar, says scientific mining along the river Beas could have mitigated the damage caused by floods in Panjab during the monsoon this year. The storage capacity of the river would have been higher and the magnitude of loss suffered by the residents much less. In the current fiscal, 518 mining sites in 14 districts of Panjab have been notified to extract nearly 130M MT of sand. Ropar leads with an extraction ceiling of 17M MT, followed by 16M MT in Nawanshahr and 13M MT, 12.9M MT and 11.4M MT, in Pathankot, Amritsar, and Ludhiana districts respectively. In its proposal, IIT Ropar suggested bathymetry for the analysis of underwater sand mining. The technique involves mapping riverbeds with a drone, which would reveal any unexpected depressions on the surface of the river. The IIT has proposed a Center of Excellence on socio-environmental sustainability for river sand mining. The proposed center will also help the Panjab government in flood hazard mapping-cum-monitoring and protection of riverbanks. The AAP is considering a collaboration with the premiere institute. The IIT also detected the presence of rare metal Tantalum - a hard, lustrous transition metal that is highly corrosion resistant – in the Satluj river sand in Panjab. The annual report of the Indian Ministry of Mines for 2020-21 identified Tantalum as ‘one of the 12 critical and strategic minerals.’ The metal is used in manufacturing of electronic components.
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