83.5% of drains in Delhi desilted so far

Even after the official onset of the monsoon in Delhi on Sunday, the public works department (PWD) is yet to complete desilting of drains along major city roads—a critical pre-monsoon exercise meant to prevent urban flooding and waterlogging.

- Paras Singh

NEW DELHI: The Delhi government has deferred its first-ever cloud seeding project to late August, citing active monsoon conditions that are not conducive to the experiment, environment minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said on Tuesday.

The minister confirmed that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation has granted approval for the trial. Besides, a budget of ₹3.21 crore has been allocated for the pilot project, the minister said. The trials, originally planned between July 4 and July 11, will now be conducted between August 30 and September 10, after inputs from the India Meteorological Department (IMD), IIT-Kanpur, and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, indicated that the early-July weather window was unlikely to yield optimal conditions for seeding.

"Cloud seeding trials will be conducted after the monsoon starts to recede. This revised window will allow us to target the right type of clouds and collect accurate scientific data," Sirsa said at a press briefing, citing a statement from Professor Deepu Philip of IIT-Kanpur, which is leading the project.

Cloud seeding is a weather modification technique in which aircraft disperse hygroscopic particles—such as sodium chloride or other aerosols—into clouds to stimulate precipitation. In Delhi's case, the project aims to use this technique to trigger artificial rain and help wash pollutants from the air.