NEW DELHI | April 05, 2016: The exploitation of natural resources should be undertaken keeping in mind the threat of natural and manmade disasters, President Pranab Mukherjee today said as he underlined that mankind's sustenance depends on the adoption of environmentally sustainable mining practices.

"We cannot imagine our world today without the use of natural resources. Availability and use of minerals in any country have been factors determining self-sufficiency of its economy," he said.

"At the same time, we must understand that sustenance of mankind depends only on environmentally sustainable mining practices," he said at the National Geoscience Awards-2014 event here.

Natural resources have to be explored, extracted, refined and processed for use in national building, Mukherjee said, adding, however, that "our effort to use our natural resources should be informed by the dangers of natural and manmade disasters".

He told scientists at the function that they "have the responsibility to create greater awareness about the importance of conservation and sustainability".

The President said the exploration of mineral resources in the country requires a "greater thrust and an even greater caution".

"As the search for the near-surface deposits have reached a point of saturation, geoscientists in the country now face the crucial challenge of finding deep-seated and concealed mineral resources," he said.

There is a need to focus on exploration of offshore mineral resources which hold enormous potential for supplementing the increasing needs of the country, he said.

"Similarly, it is also important to find strategic and rare earth elements to support space and information technology missions to ensure self-reliance in these fields. However, all of this needs to be accomplished with the environmental sustainability concern in mind," Mukherjee said.

(Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/)