As a grey haze settles again over New Delhi, the government has found an innovative fix — inducing rain. With air pollution levels reaching almost 20 times the safety level, officials are hoping to rely on a scientific experiment called cloud seeding to cleanse the capital’s air-choking environment.
The Experiment to Make It Rain
On Tuesday afternoon, a light plane flew out of Kanpur, 500 km distant, with a combination of silver iodide and sodium chloride. It released the particles into cloud-like humidities above sections of Delhi in partnership with IIT Kanpur scientists in an attempt to induce rain.
The move marks India’s first cloud seeding attempt in over five decades — and the first designed specifically to fight pollution. Delhi’s new Chief Minister Rekha Gupta called it a “necessity” and a “pioneering step” toward cleaner air for the city’s 40 million residents.
Images shared by IIT Kanpur showed flares being released from the aircraft as it flew through cloudy skies. The aim was simple: if rain could be induced, it might help wash away some of the fine particulate matter (PM2.5) responsible for Delhi’s hazardous air.
Why Delhi Is Choking
Delhi is a gas chamber each winter. Cold air, sluggish winds, and a climatic phenomenon known as temperature inversion trap the pollutants near the surface of the earth. Exhaust from automobiles, factory emissions, and building dust, and crop residue burning in nearby states combine to create a poisonous brew of chemicals, smoke, and dust.
This mixture contains PM2.5 particles — so small they enter the bloodstream — along with nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide, which combine to form even more toxic compounds. Result: smog that pokes the eyes, wheezing citizens, and increased hospitalizations. https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/India/cloud-seeding-in-delhi-fails-to-induce-rain-but-yields-vital-pollution-data-iit-k-director-manindra-agrawal/ar-AA1PpS1L?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Compounding this year’s misery was Diwali, when fireworks burst in the sky with added metals and smoke.
What Exactly Is Cloud Seeding?
Cloud seeding “persuades” clouds to release rain. Scientists inject particles like silver iodide or salt into clouds full of moisture. Particles provide condensation a nucleus on which to develop, and water droplets then begin to form and eventually fall as rain.
Countries worldwide use this technology — China employed it to control the weather during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and the United Arab Emirates regularly conducts cloud seeding to stimulate rain.
But the science isn’t perfect. Cloud seeding cannot create clouds out of thin air — it only functions if conditions are already favorable.
Mixed Results and Growing Doubts
Despite the fanfare, Delhi’s first attempt on Tuesday was “not completely successful,” according to IIT Kanpur Director Manindra Agarwal. There simply wasn’t enough moisture in the atmosphere to trigger rain.
But initial readings did show some slight reduction in particulate matter levels, bearing witness to the success of some part of the mission to scrub the air clean.
But some are skeptical. Abinash Mohanty, a climate and sustainability analyst, warned that “there is not enough empirical evidence” to demonstrate long-term effects of cloud seeding on air pollution. Others are concerned about environmental consequences from the accumulation of silver iodide in soil and water.
Scientists such as Shahzad Gani and Krishna AchutaRao of IIT Delhi have also cautioned that such tests are usually “flashy distractions” from actual solutions — such as emissions cutting and city planning increases.
A Short-Term Solution to a Long-Term Crisis
For the time being, the test will be replicated by the Delhi government when the weather improves. Even that, officials admit, is short-term remediation rather than a solution.
“Cloud seeding is not a solution to Delhi’s perennial pollution issue,” Agarwal said. “It might work under some circumstances, but we need an overhaul.”
Indeed, as trucks spray water on dusty roads and smog towers hum across the city, Delhi’s struggle for clean air continues. Artificial rain might provide brief relief — but unless deeper reforms follow, the capital may once again find itself gasping for breath under a man-made sky.
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