Delhi Air Pollution: Govt conducts dual cloud seeding trials – What happened to ₹1 cr+ experiments in 2025? | Today’s news
The Delhi government has conducted two cloud seeding trials near the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) in the past 15 days to assess whether artificial rainfall can help reduce air pollution in the capital, PTI reported citing sources.
The latest attempts follow a project carried out with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur last year that failed to generate rainfall despite spending over ₹1 crore.
Government sources told PTI that the recent operations were conducted at an altitude of around 30,000 meters compared to nearly 10,000 meters during the trials held in Delhi in 2025. More trials are likely after Diwali and Chhath, they said.
The government is unlikely to make an official statement or confirm the proposed exercises before Diwali.
Why did Delhi fail in 2025?
The Delhi Environment Ministry had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with IIT Kanpur on September 25 last year to explore artificial rainfall as a possible anti-pollution measure.
The project involved two rounds of trials in October. During each operation, eight chemical flares containing silver iodide and sodium chloride were released to promote precipitation.
Read also | Delhi-NCR: Construction work will be banned for 16 days
However, neither practice brought rain. A subsequent government report attributed the result in part to insufficient moisture in the atmosphere, which was estimated to be only 10–15% according to the Hindustan Times. Such low humidity levels were not considered favorable for cloud seeding.
The government later claimed that particulate matter levels had fallen in some of the target areas. However, the primary objective of inducing rainfall remained unachieved. Two combat flights cost more than ₹1 million, according to information related to the project.
What is cloud seeding and how does it work?
Cloud seeding is a weather modification technique that seeks to increase the likelihood of rain or snow by introducing substances into existing clouds. Chemicals such as silver iodide and sodium chloride are dispersed into suitable clouds to promote the formation of water droplets or ice crystals.
These particles provide a surface for moisture to collect or freeze. As droplets or ice crystals grow, they can become heavy enough to fall as precipitation under favorable atmospheric conditions.
Read also | Air pollution alert: 3 Punjab cities among 10 most polluted in the world
This technique cannot create clouds or create moisture from scratch. Its effectiveness depends on factors such as cloud composition, moisture content, temperature and prevailing weather conditions.
Delhi’s air quality remains “very poor” for the fourth day.
Air quality in Delhi remained in the “very poor” category for the fourth consecutive day on Thursday, with forecasts warning that pollution levels could enter the “severe” zone from Friday, just days before Diwali, according to PTI.
The national capital recorded an average Air Quality Index (AQI) of 369 at 4 pm on Thursday, marginally lower than Wednesday’s reading of 377 at the same time, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). The average AQI was 350 on Tuesday and 324 on Monday.
Read also | GRAP 2 in Delhi: What is allowed; what isn’t Which cars, vehicles are prohibited?
Data from the CPCB showed that 18 of the 59 operational monitoring stations in Delhi reported “severe” air quality. Jahangirpuri recorded the highest pollution level, with an AQI of 454 at 4:00 p.m.
According to the CPCB classification, an AQI of 0–50 is considered “good”, 51–100 “satisfactory”, 101–200 “moderate”, 201–300 “poor”, 301–400 “very poor” and 401–500’s.
Delhi AQI forecast
The Air Quality Early Warning System (AQEWS) expects pollution levels to remain in the “very poor” category on Thursday before deteriorating to “significant” between Friday and Sunday.
“The outlook for the next six days is that air quality is likely to be in the severe to very poor category,” the AQEWS bulletin said.
Meanwhile, forecasts by the Decision Support System (DSS) for Delhi’s air quality management suggest that the contribution of stubble burning to the capital’s pollution could drop considerably on November 7, while the contribution of vehicular emissions is expected to rise.
The DSS, run under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, estimated that stubble burning accounted for 15.601% of Delhi’s pollution on Thursday. Its projected contribution is expected to increase to 19.201% on Friday and drop to 1.575% on Saturday.
In contrast, the estimated share of transport emissions is projected to increase from Thursday’s 17.913% to 18.291% on Friday and 21.108% on Saturday.
The DSS projections of the contribution of various sources to Delhi’s PM2.5 pollution in the coming days are based on climatological information on fire numbers and emissions, rather than real-time farm fire data.
