As the region’s declining air quality has resulted in a rise in respiratory ailments, India’s Environment Minister Gopal Rai stated on Tuesday that the capital city of Delhi is eager to employ artificial rain to combat air pollution this year.
Every winter, a hazardous haze covers the nation’s capital and its suburbs as cold air traps dust, car emissions, and smoke from agricultural fires in the breadbasket states of Punjab and Haryana. This causes pollution in large areas of northern India.
In 2023, cloud-seeding—the process of creating rain by sprinkling salts on clouds—was also contemplated as a means of reducing pollution, but owing to unfavorable weather, the proposal was never implemented.
“I request the federal environment minister to…In reference to Tuesday’s air quality index (AQI) result, Rai informed reporters that pollution in Delhi and northern India has now crossed the 400-point mark.
“The ten days ahead are really important.Call a meeting to assist us obtain approval for artificial rain,” he stated.
A severe AQI score of over 400 was recorded on Tuesday at over one-third of Delhi’s 39 monitoring sites; this level impacts healthy individuals but is more dangerous for those battling illness.
Good air quality is defined as having a score between 0 and 50.
Following last week’s celebration of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, when celebrants disregarded a ban on firecrackers, doctors at private hospitals in Delhi and its outskirts reported an increase in patients with respiratory ailments.
