A costly attempt to get Delhi to receive artificial rain remained unsuccessful on Tuesday, while more experiments were in the pipeline, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government said after carrying out a cloud-seeding trial over smog-choked city amid ‘very poor’ air quality.
The attempt to induce artificial rain over Delhi is said to have costed over ₹1 crore.
A small, single-propeller aircraft operated by IIT Kanpur hovered over northwest Delhi and parts of the National Capital Region (NCR) on Tuesday, firing silver iodide flares in two cloud seeding trials that failed to produce rain - an attempt that Delhi's environment minister still called “successful”. Follow weather live updates
How much did Delhi cloud seeding attempt cost?
The Delhi Cabinet approved the cloud seeding project on May 7, allocating ₹3.21 crore for five trials - roughly ₹64 lakh per attempt.
Planned in partnership with IIT Kanpur, the trials were initially slated for late May and early June but faced two postponements: first to late August and early September due to the southwest monsoon’s arrival, and again as rains persisted in the region.
The two trials conducted on Tuesday cost approximately ₹1.28 crore in total, as reported earlier by HT.
{{/usCountry}}The two trials conducted on Tuesday cost approximately ₹1.28 crore in total, as reported earlier by HT.
{{/usCountry}}How was cloud seeding over Delhi done and why did it not rain?
The Cessna aircraft fired 16 flares - eight in each trial - containing silver iodide and sodium chloride compounds over Burari and surrounding areas, Mayur Vihar, and Noida in attempts to induce rain in a bid to bring down air pollution levels.
“Delhi has taken an unprecedented, science-first step by adopting cloud seeding as a tool to control air pollution. Our focus is to assess how much rainfall can be triggered under Delhi’s real-life humidity conditions. With every trial, science guides our actions—for the winter and all year round,” an earlier HT report quoted Delhi’s environment minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa as saying.
The second trial was conducted later in the day in outer Delhi and covered areas like Badli.
Nine to 10 such trials are planned over the next few days, Sirsa said, adding that since the IMD has informed that the wind direction is towards north, areas falling under that region are being targeted.
A Delhi government report on the cloud seeding trials said that the moisture content predicted by IMD was low, at around 10-15 per cent, which is not ideal for cloud seeding.
The official report, however, also said the cloud seeding trials conducted in Delhi on Tuesday helped in the reduction of particulate matter at locations where the exercise was carried out even as conditions were not ideal for it.
Political slugfest over artificial rain
The cloud seeding initiative seems to be another flashpoint in Delhi’s politics, with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which led the previous government, hitting out at the BJP asking whether rain gods will come down to clarify if the city will receive showers.
AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj held a press conference on Tuesday questioning the BJP-led government’s decision to conduct trials on a day when the IMD had already forecast rain.
In the presser where the Bollywood song ‘jhooth bole kauwa kaate’ played in the backdrop, Saurabh Bharadwaj mocked the BJP displaying placards highlighting his earlier made allegations of “frauds” the government is carrying out.
“Will Lord Indra come down to clarify whether it is artificial rain or natural rain?” he said at the press conference and also in posts he shared on X of clips from his visit to parts of to inspect if there was rain.
Addressing another press conference on Wednesday, Saurabh Bharadwaj said the BJP government was making a fool out of the entire country from public money.
“The trial was conducted even though a study says this won't work in Delhi. CM Rekha Gupta should answer. Why is she using Delhi taxpayers money,” Saurabh Bharadwaj said in the press conference that he had described as “smoking gun” uncovering “how a mega fraud was committed” on Tuesday.
The previous AAP government first introduced the cloud seeding plan in winter 2023 but failed to go ahead with it, citing unfavourable meteorological conditions. Last winter, AAP again floated the proposed programme but claimed it did not receive the BJP-led central government's backing for required flight and environmental permissions.
Manjinder Sirsa has previously attacked AAP for “only talking about such plans” without action.
The first trial on Tuesday was completed by 2 pm and for the second trial, the flight took off from Meerut around 4 pm and completed the trial in an hour.
Soon after the first trial, Manjinder Sirsa said IIT-Kanpur says rain could happen within 15 minutes to four hours after the exercise.
"However, the rainfall won't be heavy since the humidity levels were only at 15 to 20 per cent," the minister had said.
However, the IMD data shows there was no rainfall recorded in Delhi till late evening.