We all are aware of the current air quality in Delhi. Day by day, it is getting worse and badly affecting the health of Delhites. It is not the first time Delhites has faced such issues as every year, for two months (October And November) the alert has been imposed. But this time the situation is getting more serious and as usual, the government has come up with plans to deal with this situation. According to the reports, the Delhi government is planning to do artificial rain over the Delhi NCR to solve the air pollution crisis. So what is artificial rain, how it will happen and what exactly is the concept that is surely making rounds in your mind?
On Wednesday, 8th November 2023, the environmental minister of Delhi, Gopal Rai shared that Delhi would make an effort to deal with the current situation and to tackle that, they are planning to do artificial rain. It is essential to solve the situation and that is why the Government is doing all necessary things to fight against increasing pollution levels. The report states that Rai held a meeting with experts from IIT Kanpur to discuss the plan and the prospects of cloud seeding. Gopal Rai states that the Delhi Government is ready to get a comprehensive proposal which will be coming from the side of IIT Kanpur.
After that, this proposal will be sent to the Supreme Court for approval as well as for review. It is noted that, on Wednesday, the AQI in Delhi stood still at a “severe level” and today (Thursday, 9th October 2023) it is standing at 519 whereas PM is 2.5. Due to that air quality still remains in the category of “very poor” and this data has been shared by the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR). Besides that, Delhi got the 4th place on the list of 50 of the most polluted cities in the world. Hence, it is getting quite important to deal with it as soon as possible. Many alerts have been shared regarding the current situation and soon the government will implement an odd-even scheme just like in past years.
At present, Stage IV of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) has been implemented in Delhi to combat the pollution levels in Delhi. Besides, the odd-even car rationing scheme will soon be implemented in the capital of India but this thing will happen only after the reviews of the Supreme Court. Speaking about the artificial rain, this attempt will be taking place on the 20th of November. The government believes that the attempt will be helpful and that is why they will soon send the proposal to the Supreme Court to get the approval. Apart from that, the Delhi Environment Minister states that the transport department of the government has been ordered to ban application-based taxis “in accordance with the Supreme Court’s orders.”
However, it is yet not known when this ban will be implemented. We need to wait for the official announcement regarding this matter. However, the officials of the transport department state that the plan is to carry out the ban only at the time of the odd-even period. Many of you are surely thinking about how artificial rain will occur. Well, artificial rain is basically a weather modification technique that is used to generate precipitation by enriching the creation of raindrops in clouds. Cloud seeding (another name for artificial rain) occurs by introducing a particular substance, usually potassium iodide or silver iodide into the clouds. Let’s see when it will happen and how useful it will be.
