Kejriwal Wants To Explore Option Of Artificial Rains To Curb Pollution In Delhi But Is It A Practical Solution?

It is wrong to blame Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal alone for the mess the national capital has created itself when it comes to air pollution.

But being the chief minister he cannot also run away from the responsibility of taking steps to, if not bring it down, at least make sure that the levels don't worsen any further.

AFP

Unfortunately in 2015 and now in 2016 Kejriwal has failed to come up with any solid steps in this direction.

Last year the AAP government tried to bring the air pollution down by using traffic restrictions, namely #oddeven. The much hyped and yet controversial regulation couldn't make much of an impact as it was limited to just 15 days and made a mess of common commuters life as the national capital's public transport system was not ready for it.

One year down the line, the air pollution has again spiked to dangerous levels and once again Kejriwal has come up with an unconventional solution - artificial rains.

AFP

The AAP government on Monday suggested the Centre to consider engineering artificial rain over Delhi and the NCR region which are grappling with recordbreaking levels of air pollution. At a meeting between the Centre and NCR states, Delhi Environment Minister Imran Hussain said ¡°the Centre should consider (engineering) artificial rains.¡±

What is artificial rain?

Technically called as cloud seeding, it is a method to artificially induce rain by creating an atmosphere for nucleation. Tiny particles of silver iodide are sprayed on a cloud from an aeroplane. Sometimes, solid carbon dioxide called dry ice is used, as it is cheaper. The particles attract water drops from the cloud. When they form a drop that is large enough, it starts raining.

Cloud seeding experiments

If approved, Delhi will be one of the few cities across the world to have done it. Beijing did it effectively in 2008 ahead of the Olympics, even though their reason was entirely different - to have clean skies during the mega sporting event. Others including Singapore and UAE have done the same, but to induce rain and had nothing to do with pollution control.

Cloud Seeding in India

Last year drought-hit states like Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh tried cloud seeding, but failed to provide any solid result.

Not a viable solution in India

Even though the Chinese have offered its cloud seeding technology to India, many have questioned the practicability here.

Union Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave said there is a need to examine its ¡°workability¡±. ¡°We will have to examine technical aspects and its workability. The Aviation Ministry will also have to take a decision. The area involved will be vast¡­more than 50 kilometres. So, we will seek details from the Aviation Ministry. If it is possible, we will take the necessary steps,¡± he said.