Despite inputs from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) that clouds on October 28 in Delhi would be insufficient to coax artificial rain, researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur went ahead with their plan of flying their Cessna-plane and firing 10 kg of a concoction of silver iodide, common salt and rock salt into the clouds to tear them. Twice. And failed both times.
That Tuesday — with Delhi’s air quality predictably ‘poor’ — it was the first time the capital had experimented with cloud-seeding since 1972 and for the first time ever, with the express plan of improving air quality.
