Delhi cloud seeding trial fails to induce rain, erupts political slugfest
The Rekha Gupta-led administration collaborated with IIT Kanpur to conduct five cloud-seeding trials between October and December, at an estimated cost exceeding ₹3 crore.
PTC News Desk: The much hyped cloud seeding trial conducted in parts of Delhi failed to induce rain- even as the capital's environment minister hailed the exercise as successful.
This year, as Delhi’s air quality slipped into the ‘very poor’ to ‘severe’ range, the newly formed BJP government in the capital revived the cloud seeding project. The Rekha Gupta-led administration collaborated with IIT Kanpur to conduct five cloud-seeding trials between October and December, at an estimated cost exceeding ₹3 crore.
On Tuesday, an IIT Kanpur aircraft travelled around 400 km to Delhi and dispersed a silver iodide solution over clouds in Burari, Mayur Vihar, and Karol Bagh in an effort to trigger rainfall. A second round was carried out three hours later over the same regions. AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj criticised the move, questioning the need for artificial rain trials when the India Meteorological Department had already predicted rainfall that day. “Will Lord Indra come down to clarify whether it’s artificial or natural rain?” he remarked at a press conference.
However the cloud seeding trial has subsequenlty triggered a political slugfest
The earlier AAP government had first proposed the plan during the winter of 2023 but was unable to implement it due to unfavourable weather conditions. It revived the proposal last winter as well, but claimed that the Centre withheld necessary flight and environmental clearances.
BJP leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa has previously accused AAP of “only talking about such projects” without taking action.
An IIT Kanpur report issued later on Tuesday mentioned that “two precipitation events were observed,” describing them as “trace” rainfall of 0.1 mm over Noida and 0.2 mm over Greater Noida, according to data from the Windy website. However, official weather stations at these locations did not record any rain, and since Windy uses predictive models rather than actual measurements, the report stopped short of directly linking the “trace rainfall” to the cloud-seeding flights.