India tries Delhi cloud seeding for first time to bring rain, help fight deadly smog
There are plans for the scheme to be rolled out, with the city’s 30 million people living in one of the world’s most polluted capitals
India trialled cloud seeding over its smog-filled capital for the first time, spraying a chemical from an aeroplane to encourage rain and wash deadly particles out of the air.
Cloud seeding is the practice of using aeroplanes to fire salt or other chemicals into clouds to induce rain.
New Delhi city authorities, working with the government’s Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, launched a test run on Thursday afternoon using a Cessna light aeroplane over the city’s northern Burari area.
“A trial seeding flight was done … in which cloud seeding flares were fired”, Delhi Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said in a statement late on Thursday.
“This flight was the proving flight for checking the capabilities for cloud seeding, the readiness and endurance of the aircraft, the capability assessment of the cloud seeding fitments and flares, and coordination among all involved agencies.”
It comes ahead of a planned roll-out of the scheme.