A cloud-seeding trial – to stimulate rainfall – has been completed over parts of Delhi, and the plane that conducted the exercise has returned to its base in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur, sources told NDTV Tuesday afternoon. The city, choking under a predictable annual blanket of toxic smog, now awaits that rainfall.
However, sources said rain is not expected before 5 pm as the moisture content in clouds above the city, at this time, is less than 20 per cent. At such low levels, the chances of rain are usually low.
But, if the weather permits (and the first cloud-seeding fails) a second flight may depart Kanpur.
The Delhi government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Indian Institute of Technolog in September to carry out five cloud-seeding trials, all of which are planned over northwest Delhi, at a cost of Rs 3.21 crore. The five can take place any time between October 1 and November 30.
What is cloud-seeding
Cloud seeding is the adding of chemicals like silver iodide nanoparticles, iodised salt, and dry ice to the atmosphere to ‘trick’ the environment into raining, and is used in areas experiencing water scarcity or to reduce hail and clear fog. It can be done using airplanes, rockets, or machines on the ground.
Why Delhi wants artificial rain
The national capital is infamous for its polluted air.
NDTV Expains | What Is Cloud Seeding And Why Delhi Wants To Do It
The city experiences high levels of pollution throughout the year, and that problem is exarcebated in the winter months, when weather conditions conspire with noxious smoke released from farm fires in neighbouring states. Toxic smoke from the bursting of firecrackers from Diwali adds to the deadly mix.
This season the Supreme Court relaxed its normally strict rule on the latter and allowed ‘controlled’ bursting of ‘green’ firecrackers. However, rules about timings were openly flouted and, judging by the deathly gray haze that covered the city on the morning after Diwali, so was the ‘green’ crackers rule.
READ | ‘Green’ Crackers Failed. Delhi Suffers Worst Post-Diwali Air In 5 Years
In fact, despite a 77.5 per cent drop in farm fires – a key reason for air pollution – the AQI in the city plummeted to a five-year post-Diwali low. Average PM2.5 levels reached shocking averages of 488 micrograms per cubic metre – nearly 100 times the exposure limit advised by the World Health Organization – and, perhaps worse, a catastrophic 212 per cent increase from pre-Diwali levels.
And that worrying trend has continued even a week after Diwali.
As of 8 am, the AQI in several parts of the city was over the 300-mark; in south Delhi areas like Siri Fort it was 350. It was over 300 in other areas too, RK Puram (320), Bawana (336), Burari Crossing (326), Dwarka Sector 8 (316), Mundka (324), Narela (303), and Punjabi Bagh (323).
The polluted air is reducing citizens’ life expectancy by an average of 11.9 years compared to the World Health Organisation guidelines, a report by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago said.
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