Delhites were left downright disappointed when the government’s cloud-seeing trial failed to make it rain in the capital.
The reported ₹3.2-crore experiment was meant to induce artificial rain to cut down rising pollution. 14 flares were fired on Tuesday containing a mixture of 20% silver iodide along with a combination of rock salt and common salt. But the CM Rekha Gupta-led government themselves admitted that moisture content was insufficient.
According to the IMD, humidity was only around 15%, far below the 50% needed for cloud seeding to work.
However, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, the Delhi government’s Minister of Environment, claimed the process could still show effect as it could rain at any point in the 24 hours following the sorties.
But, hope is not a strategy.
Experts like Manindra Agrawal, the IIT Kanpur Director who led this experiment, believe such experiments treat the symptoms rather than cause.
He added that there needs to be a long-term solution that drastically reduces pollution itself, instead of actions that aim to mitigate the effects of Delhi’s perennial problem.
Remember, Delhi consistently ranks amongst the most polluted cities in the world with pollution levels often reaching 20 times higher than the World Health Organization’s safe limit.
Air quality worsens in New Delhi every winter as farmers burn crop residue in nearby states and cooler temperatures trap the smoke, which mixes with vehicle and industrial emissions.
A report by Switzerland-based air quality monitoring database, IQAir, labelled New Delhi the world’s most polluted capital.
