Artificial rain planned in Delhi: DGCA Approves trial to curb toxic smog
Artificial rain will be made in Delhi to deal with pollution during Diwali and winter season. The Directorate General of Aviation (DGCA) approved it. Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa gave this information on Tuesday.
He said that this trial will be done between the last week of August and the first week of September. A total of 5 trials will be done to understand how effective this technology is in reducing the smog that increases during Diwali and September. These trials will be done in collaboration with IIT Kanpur.
According to the government, the cost of artificial rain once will be around Rs 66 lakh, while the cost of the entire trial will cost around Rs 2 crore 55 lakh. Similar artificial rain i.e. cloud seeding was done in Solapur, Maharashtra in 2017. After the experiment, there was 18% more rain than normal.
Trial will be done in the outskirts of Delhi
The trial will be done in the outskirts of Delhi. For this, areas of Alipur, Bawana, Rohini, Burari, Pavi Sadakpur and Kundli Border have been selected. Cloud seeding will be done between August 30 and September 10. Earlier this trial was to be done in July, but it was postponed on the suggestion of meteorologists.
The Air Quality Index (AQI) in Delhi often reaches the ‘very poor’ category. Many plans were made earlier, but no permanent solution has been found. Now the government is hoping that artificial rain can provide relief.
According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), which tells the level of pollution in the country, pollution in Delhi reached a very dangerous level in October-November. Its AQI crossed 494. CPCB has placed such AQI in the Severe + category. Even a healthy person breathing in this air can fall ill. Seeing the increasing pollution, the Supreme Court had ordered to implement all the restrictions of Stage-4 of the Graded Response Action Plan to improve the AQI.
