NEW DELHI: As the national capital struggles with ‘very poor’ air quality in the days following the Diwali festival, Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa held a briefing on Tuesday to address the air pollution crisis. The smog-choked city has been looking for immediate solutions, prompting questions about the government’s plan for artificial rain.
During his address, Sirsa firmly ruled out the possibility of implementing artificial rain through cloud seeding in the immediate future, despite the technique being publicly discussed as an option by the Rekha Gupta-led BJP government to mitigate the crisis.
The minister clarified that the technique, often proposed to wash pollutants out of the air, is dependent on existing meteorological conditions.
“For those asking us, why are we not getting cloud seeding done. I want to tell these illiterate people, they are burning in vengeance and forget everything,” Sirsa stated during the briefing, before delivering a crucial clarification: “In cloud seeding, the cloud comes first and then comes the seeding.”
Sirsa emphasized that cloud seeding is only viable “when there are clouds” present in the atmosphere. His response suggests that the current atmospheric conditions over Delhi are not suitable for the immediate deployment of the artificial rain technology.
The statement dampens hopes for a quick fix to the heavy smog that has descended upon Delhi, confirming that the implementation of cloud seeding will have to wait for favorable weather.