India’s capital territory of Delhi is keen to use artificial rain to fight air pollution this year, its Environment Minister Gopal Rai said on Tuesday, as deteriorating air quality in the region led to an increase in respiratory illnesses. From a report: Large swathes of north India battle pollution each winter as cold air traps dust, vehicle emissions and smoke from farm fires in the breadbasket states of Punjab and Haryana, shrouding the national capital and its suburbs in a toxic haze. Cloud-seeding – the method of triggering rain by seeding clouds with salts – was considered to curb pollution in 2023 too but the plan did not materialise due to unfavourable weather conditions.
“I appeal to the federal environment minister…now in Delhi and north India, the pollution has reached the border of 400,” Rai told reporters, referring to the air quality index (AQI) score on Tuesday. “The next 10 days are quite crucial…help us get permission for artificial rain, call a meeting,” he said. About a third of Delhi’s 39 monitoring stations showed a severe AQI score of more than 400 on Tuesday, a level which affects healthy people but is more serious for those fighting disease. An air quality score of zero to 50 is considered good.
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