Planes to carry out cloud seeding arrive in Maha: IMD official

Three planes for bringing about artificial rains in southern districts of Maharashtra along the borders of Karnataka and Telangana have arrived at the Solapur airport, an India Meteorological Department official said on Tuesday.

Solapur, Osmanabad and several districts from Marathwada and Vidarbha have received rainfall between 50-75 per cent of their average precipitation.

"The government has decided to carry out cloud seeding for artificial rains in the Solapur-Osmanabad region. For that officials will survey the skies for next some days. If the cloud density is sufficient, then seeding will be done for artificial rains," said the official.

He said the first survey was conducted on Tuesday using a plane.

A radar has been deployed at the Revenue department's divisional office for cloud mapping.

As per the Maharashtra Agriculture department, many tehsils in south Madhya Maharashtra, north Madhya Maharashtra, Marathwada and Vidarbha have received rainfall between 50-75 per cent, as on the last week of July.

The situation is worrisome as half of the monsoon season is over, a state agriculture department official said.

Cloud seeding is a type of weather modification in which chemicals like silver iodide, potassium iodide, dry ice (solid carbon dioxide) or liquid propane is dispersed in the air to act as cloud condensation to alter its microphysical processes.