Can India tackle air pollution through artificial rain?

Climate Emergency

There are videos on social media suggesting that an artificial rain experiment by IIT Kanpur can tackle air pollution and drought and that this artificially induced rainfall is likely to have “no negative consequences on the environment”. Videos on social media claim this as a “sustainable solution”. However, this isn't the first time that cloud seeding has been suggested as a possible solution for air pollution in Delhi.

Some experts say that it is complicated, an expensive exercise whose efficacy in battling pollution is not completely proven, and that more research is needed to understand its long-term environmental impact. Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur has proposed this idea to reduce pollution levels in the national capital. This project has been in development since 2018.

To understand this further, Climate Emergency host Sneha Richhariya speaks to Professor Maninder Agarwal, who is a professor at IIT Kanpur and is the scientist who's leading this project on artificial rainfall.

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