Delhi Plans Artificial Rain On November 20-21 To Tackle Severe Air Quality Crisis

The Delhi administration intends to induce artificial rain in the city on November 20-21 to alleviate the distress of residents grappling with a significant deterioration in air quality over the past week.

The air quality index in the capital has stayed 'severe' for seven consecutive days, attributed to crop residue burning in neighbouring states and local factors like vehicle emissions.

The IIT Kanpur team assisting the Delhi government said that a 40% cloud cover is essential for artificial rain, which may occur on November 20-21.

The team has also notified the city government that the project is expected to cost approximately Rs 1 lakh per square kilometer.

Artificial rains will be induced via cloud seeding technology, which refers to the process of spreading either dry ice or more commonly, silver iodide aerosols, into the upper part of clouds to try to stimulate the precipitation process and form rain.