‘GSI has played a crucial role in identifying mineral resources’

May 23, 2024 13 Views No Comment

Workshop on ‘Application of National Geochemical Mapping data and utility of National Geoscience Data Repository’ in Dimapur

Morung Express News
Dimapur | May 23

A one-day Workshop on ‘Application of National Geochemical Mapping data and utility of National Geoscience Data Repository’ was conducted for state department officials at the Directorate of Geology and Mining office, Dimapur on May 22.

The workshop, organised by the Geological Survey of India (GSI) had in attendance officials from allied departments, visiting delegates from the Government of Manipur and was addressed by Commissioner and Secretary of Geology & Mining, John K Angami during the inaugural.

In his speech, the official commended the contributions made by the Geological Survey of India of being the premier geo-scientific organisation in the country. “Over 137 years of its history, GSI has played a crucial role in identifying mineral resources, essentially for India’s economic growth,” he said.

Further, the body has prioritised geophysical mapping to identify new prospective areas for occurrences of mineral deposits and demarcate areas of potential geo-environmental health hazards, specifying the causes of such ailments.

In regard to the geochemical mapping, they have been embarking on creating a database for the entire country since 2001. The main objective of this programme is to create a seamless geochemical map of different elements (64 numbers).

For Manipur and Nagaland, this process had been started in the year 2010. NGCM of Nagaland (16,579 sq. km) has been completed in its entirety in 2024, while 18,033 sq km out of 22,327 sq km of Manipur have been completed so far.

With these contributions made by GSI, he hoped that the State departments will be able to utilize the data in their works.

The geochemical baseline database has multi-purpose utility such as managing and developing natural resources, applications in environmental, agricultural, human health and other societal concerns.

The National Geoscience Data Repository (NGDR) is a flagship initiative conceptualized by Ministry of Mines as a part of National Mineral Exploration Policy (NMEP), 2016 for hosting all exploration related geoscientific data for dissemination to all stakeholders to expedite, enhance and facilitate the exploration coverage of the country.

NGDR is a comprehensive online platform for accessing, sharing and analyzing geospatial digital information of all legacy data including exploration data of the stakeholders. This initiative represents a significant leap forward in democratizing critical geoscience data, empowering stakeholders across industries and academia with unprecedented access to invaluable resources. GSI is the nodal agency for implementation of NGDR.

In the technical session, an Introduction to National Geochemical Mapping Programme (NGCM) was provided by Abhinab Borah, it has helped in the management/ development of natural resources, environmental studies, agriculture and forestry, human and animal health.

So far, the NGCM has covered about 13.56 lakh sq km of the country including the Deccan Volcanic province, coastal alluvium, Himalayas, Thar Desert and the Indo-Gangetic-Brahmaputra plain.

Other resource persons provided inputs on access, handling and application of NGCM data, geochemical mapping: a case study and introduction to NGDR.