When will Delhi attempt next cloud seeding trial? IIT Kanpur Director responds
Manindra Agrawal's remark comes even as the Delhi government paused the exercise on Wednesday citing low moisture content in clouds.
A day after two cloud seeding trials failed to yield any results, Manindra Agrawal, IIT Kanpur Director, has said that cloud seeding trials will be carried out in Delhi once the moisture content in clouds reaches at least 40 per cent to 50 per cent.
His remark comes even as the Delhi government paused the exercise on Wednesday citing low moisture content in clouds.
Speaking to ANI, Agrawal said that there is no prediction for such a high moisture content tomorrow (October 30), but expressed hope that it could occur in the next three to four days.
“We are hoping for a cloud cover over the next 4-5 days and we have kept the aircraft ready in Meerut so that at short notice we can fly. Generally, it will be in the East and North parts of Delhi only. We cannot go West or South because of the airport, and we can't go to the Central area because of the VIP area,” Manindra Agrawal told ANI.
“It also depends on the wind speed and in which direction the wind is taking the clouds... I understand the disappointment in people because they were hoping and expecting it to rain. All I can say is we'll keep trying, and we hope that we can get a good cloud cover and we can make it rain,” he added.
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Two cloud seeding trials were conducted in collaboration with IIT-Kanpur on Tuesday.
Two aircraft fitted with salt-based and silver iodide flares took off on Tuesday, to induce artificial rain in Delhi. The aircraft, loaded with eight flares each, hovered over the northwest areas of the capital to conduct cloud seeding. However, the trials did not lead to artificial rain in the city.
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According to IIT-Kanpur, which executed the trials, ₹60 lakh was incurred on the exercise.
The first two trials to induce artificial rain in Delhi cost the state government a total of around ₹1.28 crore. The Delhi Cabinet had approved the cloud seeding project in May, allocating ₹3.21 crore for five trials, each trial costing roughly ₹64 lakh.
According to Delhi environment minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa, the government has planned 9-10 such trials over the next few days.
