Delhi govt’s Rs 3.2 crore cloud-seeding experiment fails, experts call it costly, unsustainable
New Delhi: Despite high hopes and a hefty budget, Delhi government's much-publicised cloud-seeding experiment has failed to bring significant rainfall, leaving experts questioning the efficacy of the initiative.
The Delhi government’s cloud seeding trials, conducted on Tuesday, have been described as a “hugely expensive, temporary and unsustainable” measure to tackle the capital’s toxic pollution, according to experts cited by the Times of India. Even if artificial rain briefly reduces pollutants, they warn, pollution levels rebound within a day or two.
Under a memorandum of understanding between the Delhi environment department and IIT-Kanpur, over Rs 3.2 crore has been allocated for five cloud-seeding trials — roughly Rs 64 lakh per trial. Three trials conducted in north Delhi failed to produce any major rainfall. Meanwhile, the city’s Air Quality Index (AQI) has continued to hover in the ‘very poor’ to ‘poor’ range.
Anumita Roychowdhury, Executive Director of Research and Advocacy at the Centre for Science and Environment, noted that substantial rainfall has yet to be recorded after cloud seeding. “Even if the rains wash out the pollutants, the pollution will bounce back quickly. The impact lasts from hours to a couple of days,” TOI quoted her as saying.
Roychowdhury added that the initiative is not sustainable and cannot be repeated throughout the winter. She emphasised that investments should focus on reducing emissions at the source for long-term improvements in air quality and public health.
Sunil Dahiya, founder and lead analyst of the think tank EnviroCatalysts, said that improving air quality requires tackling sector-specific emissions from transport, power, and construction. He added that no real impact can be achieved without addressing these sources.
"Cosmetic measures may create short-term visibility benefits but are not sustainable solutions. The focus should instead be on coordinated action across states and agencies through an airshed-based approach that targets the actual sources of pollution," TOI quoted him as saying.
Environmental activist Bhavreen Kandhari pointed out that Delhi’s atmosphere already had enough moisture due to a western disturbance, which naturally brings rain. “Under such circumstances, cloud seeding adds little scientific value; it becomes a costly experiment chasing what nature is already prepared to deliver. Clean air will not come from artificial rain, but from sustained reductions in emissions, dust control, and responsible policy," Kandhari added.
While cloud seeding may seem futuristic, experts stress that Delhi’s true challenge is on the ground, not in the sky. With increasing construction dust, vehicle emissions, and industrial pollution, the city’s air quality cannot be improved through one-off measures. Sustainable progress, they say, depends on strict enforcement of pollution control norms, coordinated regional action, and long-term policy initiatives.
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Bengaluru: ISRO receives 1.5 lakh satellite collision alerts from US
Bengaluru: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) received over 1.5 lakh space debris and collision alerts for its Earth-orbiting satellites from the United States-led Combined Space Operations Centre, according to the Indian Space Situational Awareness Report for 2025 (ISSAR-2025), as reported by The New Indian Express.
The report was released by ISRO on Thursday for the public to assess. It was announced on April 8 during the international conference on spacecraft mission operations-2026, in Bengaluru.
According to ISRO, a total of four collision avoidance manoeuvres (CAM) were carried out for Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites, while 14 CAMs, including one for the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR), were performed for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites.
ISRO said that, wherever possible, collision avoidance requirements were being met by adjusting orbit maintenance manoeuvres to avoid exclusive CAMs. All manoeuvre plans were subjected to close approach risk analysis to prevent potential collisions with nearby space objects.
They accounted revising 82 manoeuvre plans to avoid post-manoeuvre close approaches with other space objects for LEO satellites, while two manoeuvre plans were modified for GEO satellites for the same reason.
Conjunction assessment and collision risk mitigation were also being followed for deep-space missions. Citing the case of Chandrayaan-2 orbiter, ISRO scientists said 16 orbital manoeuvres were carried out in the lunar orbit and on two occasions (January 1 and July 24, 2025), the orbits were readjusted to avoid collisions with NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).
ISRO said the first such coordinated collision avoidance effort with NASA dates back to October 18, 2021. Since then, technological interventions have been strengthened for early detection of objects in orbit. ISRO scientists added that for spaceflight security, they have also been coordinating with many agencies, particularly for Chandrayaan-2 with Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines and iSpace.
The ISSAR-2025 report also detailed how the IRNSS-1D, the fourth of the seven Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System satellites, was raised to a graveyard orbit nearly 600 km above the geostationary belt and made inactive. ISRO said this was the first-ever disposal of an Indian satellite operating in an inclined geosynchronous orbit.
Similarly, the Cartosat-2A satellite, launched in 2008, was moved to a graveyard orbit after becoming non-operational in 2025.
Following the objective for a debris-free space environment, the Technology Experiment Satellite and POEM-4 re-entered Earth’s atmosphere through natural decay. Additionally, two upper stages of the SSLV-D3 mission, the Velocity Trimming Module (VTM) and the solid stage (SS3), also re-entered the atmosphere.
ISRO reported that eight debris objects from the PSLV-C3 mission re-entered the atmosphere in 2025, while 33 remained in orbit as of 31 December 2025. The total number of Indian objects re-entering the atmosphere in 2025 was 12.
