Will Nashik 'rainmakers' get third-time lucky?

Rain-seeding rocket launched successfully after two failed attempts

After two consecutive failed attempts, Mumbai-based International School of Professional Studies (ISPS), finally fired a rocket for cloud seeding successfully.

According to a report in the Times of India, these rockets aim for cloud seeding through use of silver iodide in rain-bearing clouds, to bring showers. A bunch of rockets has to be fired within minutes, aiming at the eye of the clouds to yield the precipitation reaction to induce rainfall.

All the three experiments were conducted in the drought-hit Saigaon village.

Earlier, on why the first two experiments had failed, a report in DNA  had quoted ISPS officials as saying: “We fired seven rockets, three of which went up and the others failed to take off. Prima facie, we think as the fuel used is sugar, it probably caught moisture and, so the rockets did not take off. Those which did go up failed to behave in the manner expected, when they hit the clouds’ eye.”

The report also said that ISPS had taken the help of US-based Accu-Weather, in determining movement, density and humidity of the cloud cover before launching the experiment. But the wind proved stronger and unpredictable.

In the third attempt, the rocket finally hit the target, and it is now only a fortnight’s wait before flares are shot in succession into the sky to make rain.

According to the Times of India  report, Nashik and its neighbouring areas did not receive the expected amount of rainfall this year. With over 2.5 months of the rainy season already gone, the total storage in the dams is pegged at 34 per cent at present. The district has received 39 per cent of the total rainfall of the season so far.