A cloud-seeding experiment has been carried out over New Delhi to induce rainfall and clear the town’s smog-filled air – with the transfer sparking anger amongst residents.
A aircraft sprayed chemical compounds into clouds over some areas of the Indian capital to encourage rain and wash pollution from the air, which remained within the “very poor” class, in response to air high quality displays.
India had six of the ten most polluted cities globally, and New Delhi is essentially the most polluted capital, in response to a 2024 report from air high quality monitoring database IQAir.
Picture:
A avenue enveloped in smog in New Delhi, India, on October 28, 2025. Pic: AP
Cloud seeding is a climate modification technique that releases chemical compounds into clouds to set off rain.
It has been utilized in drought-prone areas, such because the western United States and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), although consultants say its effectiveness stays unsure.
Manjinder Singh Sirsa, an surroundings minister within the Delhi authorities, stated the trial was carried out in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Expertise Kanpur, with extra deliberate within the coming days.
He stated authorities had been anticipating a quick spell of rainfall in some components of the town within the following hours.
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Aircraft takes off from Kanpur for New Delhi for a cloud-seeding trial, on October 28, 2025. Pic: AP
New Delhi and its surrounding area, dwelling to greater than 30 million individuals, routinely rank among the many world’s most polluted.
Air high quality worsens within the capital each winter as farmers burn crop residue in close by states and cooler temperatures hold maintain of the smoke, which mixes with automobile and industrial emissions.
Air pollution ranges are sometimes practically 20 occasions larger than the World Well being Organisation’s (WHO) protected restrict.
Authorities have restricted diesel turbines, imposed development bans, and deployed water sprinklers and anti-smog weapons to curb the haze.
However critics say there must be a long-term resolution that dramatically reduces air pollution itself, as a substitute of actions that goal to mitigate the consequences after it has already coated the area.
Krishna Achuta Rao, professor on the centre for atmospheric sciences on the Indian Institute of Expertise, New Delhi, stated that seeding clouds to scale back air air pollution is ineffective as a result of it could actually dissipate air pollution just for just a few days, after which the air high quality returns to its former state.
As an alternative, Professor Rao stated, implementing robust legal guidelines that can lead to lowering emissions from all sources – together with industries, vehicular air pollution and development – is the one method to clear India’s air.
Final week, thick smog blanketed New Delhi after thousands and thousands celebrated the Hindu pageant Diwali with firecrackers, sending air air pollution ranges hovering to hazardous ranges.
These celebrating within the metropolis burst firecrackers late into Monday night time, filling the air with smoke and advantageous particles that blended with seasonal air pollution and stagnant climate circumstances.
By Tuesday morning, the town’s Air High quality Index had climbed above 350 in a number of neighbourhoods, a degree thought of “severe” and harmful to breathe, in response to the WHO’s day by day beneficial most publicity.
