That’s an important initiative! Cloud seeding can indeed help alleviate pollution by causing rainfall to wash away pollutants and dust particles from the air. It’s great to see institutions like IIT-K working on innovative solutions to address environmental challenges. This could have significant benefits for air quality and public health in the long run.
To combat the haze that has been engulfing the world’s worst-impacted capital NEW DELHI, Indian scientists intend to seed clouds for the first time, resulting in torrential rain in some parts of New Delhi.
Every year, before winter arrives in Delhi, the quality of the air decreases due to cold air trapping pollutants from many sources such as automobiles, industry, agricultural waste, and construction dust.
About November 20, scientists anticipate some cloud cover over the city. They hope this will be substantial enough, with a high enough moisture content, to cause heavy rain through salt seeding, according to Manindra Agrawal, a scientist heading the experiment at the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur.
The idea would require spraying a mixture of salts, including silver iodine, into clouds. It is projected to cost 10 million rupees ($120,000) for 100 square kilometers (38.6 square miles), according to Agrawal. “We anticipate a cloud cover of a few hundred kilometers, but not one that big that would cover all of Delhi,” he told Reuters.
The 20 million-person city, which occupies around 1,500 square kilometers (579 square miles), has already closed all of its schools, halted building, and announced that it will impose vehicle use limits to reduce pollution.
IQAir, a Swiss company, has classified the city’s early Thursday air quality index as “hazardous” at 506.
The federal government’s air-quality monitoring organization SAFAR’s founder-director, Gufran Beig, stated that light rain could make the situation worse in Delhi, which needs significant and broad rain to remove the pollutants.
In the morning haze, people stroll along the “Kartavya Path” as New Delhi’s air pollution levels drop.
As air pollution levels decreased, people strolled along the “Kartavya Path” in the morning haze. According to Beig, the present airflow is bringing smoke from the burning of crop residue from the states of Punjab and Haryana to Delhi, which is currently experiencing nearly no wind and has its sources of pollution.
“So unless a huge pressure is established by intense rain, this chain of transport from Punjab to Delhi will not be broken, and once it is broken it is difficult for the chain to form again for some time,” he told Reuters.
A government statement claims that about 38% of the pollution in the capital is caused by stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana, where more than 22,000 stubble-burning incidents were recorded between September 15 and November 7, 2023.
The statement also stated that authorities in both states had been instructed by the federal government to “take effective actions” to prevent more stubble burning.
The Supreme Court is considering petitions about pollution, and the Delhi government is hoping to obtain permission for the project from the court.
Several nations, including Mexico, the US, China, Indonesia, and Malaysia, have utilized cloud seeding to create rain, enhance air quality, and irrigate crops during dry spells.
However, in 2021, a plan to plant clouds over the New Mexico mountains in an attempt to boost snowfall was abandoned due to concerns that it might harm the environment and human health. $1 is equal to 83.2800 Indian rupees.