Government mulls over scaling up cloud seeding exercise

With large parts of Maharashtra reeling under drought, the state government is looking at scaling up its cloud seeding exercise for rain enhancement during monsoon. It plans to deploy two planes and two radars, compared to one each last year.

"We are making a transition from the use of cloud seeding for drought mitigation to rain enhancement... to ensure that these experiments are successful, we have to carry them out for a sustained period of time," a senior state government official told dna.

He added that this year, they planned to deploy two planes and two C-band doppler radars, which can predict weather and precipitation for an over 250km radius and the accurate movement of clouds with their depth and moisture content. While one would be stationed in Aurangabad like last year, the location for the second would be decided by the scientists.

"In case the rains are bountiful, this rain enhancement will still help for purposes like filling the dams and reservoirs," the official said, pointing to the Indian Meteorological Department's (IMD) forecast for good rainfall. He added that they would put the proposal before the state cabinet.

When questioned about the efficacy of the exercise conducted in 2015, the official said last year, after the cloud seeding experiments, rain guages at various circle headquarters had recorded a total of 1,381 mm measured rainfall. However, the state does not have rain guages at the village level for accurate mapping.

In 2015, the Rs28 crore weather modification exercise, which also included the cost of flying hours, pilot, technicians, meteorologists, flares, radar and consumables, had covered Marathwada, which is suffering from scanty rainfall and severe drought, and parts of Ahmednagar district.

The state had then floated the cloud seeding idea as an ameliorative measure to overcome the deficient rains. Cloud seeding involves introducing dry ice or silver iodide into clouds to aid precipitation and rainfall.

Apart from these rain enhancement exercises being carried out in other countries, the official pointed out that an 11-year cloud seeding experiment in Maharashtra had shown a 24% increase in rainfall. The Union ministry of earth sciences has also asked the Indian Institute of Tropical Metrology (IITM), Pune, to issue guidelines on cloud seeding and prepare a model for states. Recently, Karnataka too sought details of Maharashtra's cloud seeding RFP.

"Weather modification is used internationally... it is worth trying. Science says precipitation can change subject to conditions like in which months it (cloud seeding) is done," noted GB Pant, former director of the Indian Institute of Tropical Metrology (IITM), Pune. He added that usually, cloud seeding exercises were conducted at monsoon-end, and stressed on the need to do this earlier while even tapping the pre-monsoon clouds in May.

"This (cloud seeding) is worth trying in a planned manner for a longer period of time. This will increase our knowledge base," said Pant, while however adding that it could not be predicted for sure if this would increase rainfall in drought prone areas.

Author-journalist Atul Deulgaonkar, who is also a member of the state disaster management authority, stressed it was essential for these cloud seeding experiments to be conducted for a period of at least five years and beginning in June. In 2015, the state cabinet had cleared the cloud seeding proposal only in mid-July, which led to the experiments starting late and affecting the outcome.

The government official pointed out that money spent on inducing rains, was much less than funds used for providing relief to drought affected areas. Maharashtra has experimented with cloud seeding and artificial rainfall in the past.

In 2003, like neighboring Karnataka, the Maharashtra government approved a project— Prakalpa Varsha — covering parched areas like Satara, Solapur, Pune, Sangli and Ahmednagar. The BMC conducted a cloud seeding experiment in 2009. The Andhra Pradesh government has also conducted these operations in the past. Cloud seeding experiments have also been conducted in Maharashtra in the decades of the 1970s and 1980s.