Artificial rain to reduce pollution in Delhi
Digital News Guru Delhi Desk: The Kejriwal-led government of Delhi is planning to bring the ‘Artificial Rain‘ to Delhi to tackle the problem of heavy air pollution in the city. The Delhi government is ready to bear the expanses of artificial rain due to pollution in Delhi, which is hazardous for the people of the National Capital Region. The Chief Secretary of Delhi is directed to present it before the Supreme Court.
Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai met with the experts of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur regarding cloud seeding to reduce the pollution problem. According to estimates, the artificial rain plan would be implemented on November 20–21. The plan was announced by Minister Gopal Rai on Wednesday that precipitation is underway to implement the artificial rain, which is presented by the IIT Kanpur.
What is artificial rain? Artificial rain is also known as cloud seeding, and it is an artificial method used to increase the rainfall by introducing certain substances into the cloud to encourage precipitation. The common substances that are added to the clouds for the above purpose are silver iodide, potassium iodide, and dry ice, which are dispersed into the clouds by aircraft or helicopters. This method helps to reduce drought, prevent forest fires, increase precipitation, and enhance air quality.
According to Science Direct, the cloud seeding techniques can be divided into two categories. The first is that hygroscopic cloud seeding aims to accelerate the coalescence of droplets in liquid clouds, which results in the formation of larger droplets that lead to precipitation. The other technique is glaciogenic cloud seeding, which induces ice production in supercooled clouds and leads to precipitation. This method involves dispersing efficient ice nuclei, such as silver iodide or dry ice, into the cloud, which triggers heterogeneous ice nucleation.
Why cloud seeding is important: The Air Quality Index (AQI) of Delhi has been in the severe category, which is recorded as 519, which is very hazardous for the people of Delhi. The condition of Delhi has been worsening, causing significant problems for its citizens and for the other states of northern India as well, which include cities in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, etc. To tackle the issue of pollution, IIT Kanpur has proposed the idea of artificial rain to reduce the pollution level in Delhi. The plan will cost around Rs. 13 crore, which will be borne by the Delhi government.
The project has been developing since 2018, and the institute conducted the trials in July of this year. The researchers have secured the necessary permission from government authorities, including the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), to carry out seeding for this purpose. Manindra Agarwal, a professor at IIT Kanpur, has explained that the artificial rain could provide temporary relief to the citizens of Delhi for up to at least a week who are suffering from the air pollution.
Implementation of Artificial Rain in Delhi: The ‘artificial rain’ will be implemented on November 20–21 in Delhi because the success of artificial rain depends on specific meteorological conditions like the presence of seeding material, moisture-laden clouds, and wind patterns, and according to current meteorological predictions, sufficient clouds will be available around November 20–21.
The team of the institute also informed the Delhi government that the estimated cost of the project will be around Rs. 1 lakh per square kilometer and also recommended that in the first phase of this pilot cloud seeding initiative, a covering of 300 square kilometers may be carried out immediately. The Delhi government is also requesting the center’s cooperation through the Supreme Court.
This cloud seeding initiative has been used by many countries earlier to reduce pollution, like many Middle Eastern countries, and China has also used this initiative many times.
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