Delhi Artificial Rain Project

Published on 26 Oct 2025

• The Delhi Environment Department, in collaboration with IIT Kanpur, plans to use cloud seeding to combat air pollution.

• Cloud seeding is a weather modification technique used to induce or enhance rainfall by dispersing certain chemicals into moisture-laden clouds.

• Delhi hopes to trigger artificial rainfall to wash out pollutants like PM2.5 and PM10 by using a modified Cessna 206-H aircraft.

• The aircraft will disperse a mix of silver iodide, iodised salt, and rock salt into moisture-rich clouds—typically cumulus or nimbostratus—at altitudes ranging from 500 to 6,000 metres.

• This process stimulates raindrop formation, allowing the rain to cleanse the polluted air below. 

• Although cloud seeding has shown mixed but measurable success in other countries, it is being considered as a potential emergency measure to improve Delhi’s air quality.

Keywords:

Delhi Artificial Rain Project Artificial rain cloud seeding air pollution silver iodide iodised salt rock salt