CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI), Nagpur, won the first prize under Problem Statement 2 at the national-level R&D Hackathon 2026 organised by Central Mine Planning and Design Institute Limited (CMPDI), Ranchi, a subsidiary of Coal India Limited. Union Minister of State for Coal and Mines Satish Chandra Dubey presented the award during the Star Rating Award Ceremony for Coal and Lignite Mines at Raipur on November 2.

 

Dr Asheesh Sharma, Scientist-F and Head of IT and Digital Infrastructure Unit, and Dr Kanchan Kumari, Scientist-F, received the award. The winning proposal, titled ‘Development of an AI- and ML-Based GIS Model for Tree Enumeration, Species Identification and Tree Height Estimation’, was selected from 70 proposals. The technology aims to automate tree assessment, with applications in biodiversity monitoring, forest assessment and sustainable mining. The team was led by Dr Sharma and Dr Kumari, with contributions from research scholars and project associates at CSIR-NEERI.