‘Complete waste of money’: IMD’s former Director General on Delhi’s cloud seeding plans

Ever since the Delhi government launched its ‘cloud seeding’ plan, everyone’s been asking the same question – does it even work? The answer to this question becomes even more urgent after three trials, zero rainfall and the spending of lakhs in the national capital. 

So, we asked an expert to walk us through ‘cloud seeding’ as a concept, the science behind it, and whether it has potential to be a permanent solution to Delhi’s pollution woes.

KJ Ramesh is the former Director General of the Indian Meteorological Department. While the Delhi government has claimed pollution levels have dropped by 6-10 percent, Ramesh says, “There’s no question of pollution reduction without rain. If it doesn’t rain, it won’t be effective.”

He also says, quite categorically: “Whatever the government is spending on cloud seeding is a complete waste of money.”

Watch to find out why. 

While everyone wakes up to North India’s pollution woes only in winter, we’ve been tracking it through the year as part of our #FightToBreathe campaign. You can help. Click here.