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Indian authorities begin cloud-seeding experiment New Delhi In an effort to tackle the city’s severe air pollution.
This step has already aroused anger among the public.
As reported by environmental monitors, a special plane dispersed chemicals into clouds over parts of the Indian capital, with the aim of triggering rainfall and clearing ‘very poor’ quality air.
The intervention is aimed at providing relief from the persistent toxic smoke that is troubling residents.
Cloud seeding – a weather modification method that releases chemicals into clouds to trigger rain – has been used in drought-prone areas such as the West. United States of America and the United Arab Emirates, although experts say its effectiveness remains uncertain.
Delhi minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said the test was conducted in collaboration with the government’s Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, with more planned in the coming days. He said officials expect light rain in some parts of the city in the next hours.
New Delhi And the region around it, where more than 30 million people live, regularly ranks among the world’s most polluted areas. India According to a Switzerland-based report, six of the 10 most polluted cities globally are located here and New Delhi is the most polluted capital. air quality Monitoring the database IQAir earlier this year.
air quality Conditions worsen in New Delhi every winter as farmers in nearby states burn crop residue and cold temperatures trap the smoke, which mixes with vehicle and industrial emissions. Pollution levels often reach 20 times the World Health Organization’s safe limits.
Authorities have imposed construction bans, banned diesel generators and deployed water sprinklers and anti-smog guns to control the smog. However, critics say a long-term solution is needed that substantially reduces pollution, rather than actions that aim to mitigate the effects that have already hit the region.
Professor Krishna Achyuta Rao of the Center for Atmospheric Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, said cloud seeding is ineffective for reducing air pollution, as it can dissipate pollution only for a few days after which air quality Returns to the state it was in before.
Instead, Rao said, implementing strong laws that result in reducing emissions from all sources, including industries, vehicle pollution and construction, is the only way to clean up. IndiaThe air of.
“Cloud seeding is not really a cure (for pollution). It seems like its main purpose is to show people that something is being done,” he said.
Experts have repeatedly argued that cloud-seeding is not guaranteed to work in Delhi and that it provides short-term relief from a long-term pollution crisis, where the root causes are not addressed.
“In fact, Delhi’s plan for cloud seeding is a textbook case of misapplication of science and disregard for ethics,” said Shahzad Ghani, assistant professor at the Center for Atmospheric Sciences at IIT Delhi.
“The snake-oil solution will not clean the air in Delhi or the rest of North India,” he wrote in an article. The Hindu paper,
“Instead, courage is needed on the ground: to reduce sources of pollution and pursue equitable, evidence-based action. Anything less than this is not just bad science – it is an ethical failure, a distraction from the patient, unworkable work required to ensure clean air year-round.”