Artificial rain planned in UP districts with high AQI to curb pollution

Lucknow, Nov 19 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh is now planning artificial rain or cloud seeding for districts where air quality index (AQI) is high and has sought the help of IIT-Kanpur for the same.

The discussions were held after the Supreme Court asked Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan to curb air pollution.

Manoj Singh, additional chief secretary forests, environment, and climate change, said, “We have discussed with IIT-K to get cloud seeding done in districts in the NCR region where air pollution levels are high. This will be done only if there is enough humidity in the atmosphere and other favourable conditions, the experts of IIT have said.”

Recently, the Supreme Court directed four states, including UP, to take steps to bring down air pollution levels. Cloud seeding or artificial rain is weather modification technologies used to improve clouds’ capacity to produce rain or snow. Delhi is planning the same with IIT-Kanpur.

“In our state, the favourable conditions shall be around November 20. If we need, we may go ahead with artificial rain to bring down air pollution, in case it remains high at that point in time. We are preparing the other formalities and negotiations with IIT-K,” said Singh.

Officials said IIT-K charges Rs 75 lakh for a city, but further negotiations will be done when the plan is executed.

Experts said that the impact of artificial rain shall remain for over a week depending upon the effect from pollution-causing activities, including stubble burning, vehicular movement, and construction activity.

Cloud seeding can be done from ground-based generators, aircraft, or drones. When storm systems move through cloud seeding project areas, a solution containing a required quantity of silver iodide is burned from ground-based generators or released from aircraft, stimulating the formation of raindrops.

In the NCR region, Meerut has the current AQI of 364 and falls in the 'very poor' category, Ghaziabad has an AQI of 405 and was rated 'severe', Bulandshahr AQI was recorded 199 under the 'moderate' category, Hapur 320 'very poor', and Muzaffarnagar recorded an AQI at 281 and was rated 'poor'.