Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai meets with experts regarding cloud seeding; report from IIT Kanpur to be submitted to Supreme Court seeking approval; cloudy days expected on November 20, 21
Volunteers seen with an anti air pollution mask as the air quality continues to remain in the ‘severe’ category in Delhi and surrounding cities. | Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma
Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Wednesday announced that the national capital would be attempting to induce artificial rains to tackle the rising pollution. The Minister cleared the confusion over the implementation of the vehicle rationing scheme. He said the government would implement the scheme after it submitted two case studies to the Supreme court and was awaiting its go-ahead to implement the proposal.
Also read: Delhi government defers odd-even scheme implementation till SC reviews effectiveness
Mr. Rai met with experts from IIT Kanpur regarding cloud seeding for the rains. The Delhi government would be receiving a detailed proposal from IIT Kanpur which would be submitted to the Supreme Court. According to estimates, it would be cloudy on November 20-21 and if an approval came through, the plan could be executed on those days.
The Delhi government would be proposing this plan to the Supreme Court on Friday and a request for cooperation from the Centre through the apex court as well. Cloud seeding has been experimented in other parts of the country as well, including Maharashtra.
Another important measure that has already been announced by the Delhi government is the implementation of the vehicle ration scheme or the odd-even scheme. Mr. Rai said the AAP-led government would be submitting studies from the Energy Policy Institute of the University of Chicago and the Delhi Technical University regarding the scheme.
The Supreme Court has been closely monitoring the pollution situation and provided several measures for the same. On Tuesday, the court had questioned the effectiveness of the Delhi government’s car rationing scheme, aimed at curbing vehicular pollution, and referred to it as “all optics”. The court has asked the Delhi government to look at short-term solutions to mitigate the situation in the capital on an immediate basis.
