The administration of Delhi has said that it is “fully prepared” to start cloud seeding in the Capital to make it rain artificially. This is an emergency step to lower the heavy air pollution that usually happens around Diwali. Manjinder Singh Sirsa, the Minister of the Environment, said that the project is now just waiting for the India Meteorological Department (IMD) to give it the go-ahead and for the weather to be right.
The pilot project has already finished four days of trial flights over the target area in northwest Delhi.
“Our plane is ready in Meerut.” Sirsa said, “The pilots are now familiar with the flight path.” “We’re just waiting for IMD to give us the go-ahead and the correct cloud conditions. If all goes well, the first trial might happen on the day after Diwali or the day after that, if the weather is right.
The Plan’s Science and Logistics
The ₹3.21-crore project is being done with the help of IIT Kanpur, which changed a Cessna-206H plane for the job. Cloud seeding works by putting things like silver iodide (AgI) into clouds to make them better at making rain and cleaning the air.
Conditions must be perfect for the procedure to go ahead. The nimbostratus clouds that are needed must have at least 50% moisture and be between 500m and 6,000m above the earth. Unfortunately, the skies over Delhi right now don’t have enough moisture or clouds, which is why the delay is happening. An official from IIT said they are “closely monitoring atmospheric conditions, waiting for the right window.”
The project has already gone through a long bureaucratic process. The Delhi Cabinet authorized the plan in May, and the government got clearance from more than ten groups, including the DGCA, BCAS, AAI, and the UP government, as well as important central departments like Environment, Defence, and Home.
Timeline Delayed
The trials were supposed to happen in May and June, but they were pushed back because of the monsoon season. The timeframe was pushed back to August-September, but the monsoon lasted until September 24. A scheduled window in early October was also pushed back because of unexpected rain from a western disturbance. This makes the current post-Diwali window the next important chance.
Expected Effects and Expert Warning
Depending on how hard and how far it rains, it can raise air quality by 50 to 80 AQI points. Experts say:
Rain may make the AQI go from “very poor” to “poor.”
The AQI may change from “poor” to “moderate.”
Experts like Dipankar Saha, who used to run CPCB’s air lab, say that a real “washout effect” needs heavy, steady rain. Light rain or drizzle probably won’t make a big difference. He said, “The effect will depend on the wind speed, the area of influence, and the intensity of the rain.”
But other experts are still not sure how well the experiment will work in the long run. Sunil Dahiya, the creator of Envirocatalysts, said that similar trials have been done around the world, but the outcomes for controlling pollution are not always clear. He remarked, “In Pakistan, they tried something like this, but AQI went back up almost right away.” Dahiya also talked about the logistical problem of “seeding the whole city” to make a big improvement in Delhi’s air quality.