The rains in the city are caught in a tug of war: the BMC claims that it is their cloud seeding experiments that have caused rainfall in the catchment areas, while the MET department attributes it to a low-pressure belt over the Bay of Bengal.
The rains in the city are caught in a tug of war: the BMC claims that it is their cloud seeding experiments that have caused rainfall in the catchment areas, while the MET department attributes it to a low-pressure belt over the Bay of Bengal.
Satisfactory rainfall
Dr R V Sharma, deputy director of MET department, western region, said, "Mumbai and its catchment areas got satisfactory rainfall in the last three weeks as a result of a low pressure belt in the Bay of Bengal.
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Cloud seeding has only five to 10 per cent influence on normal rainfall. A 5mm-15mm rainfall caused by cloud seeding makes no difference."
Another MET official said, "If a cloud has the potential to rain, it will rain. BMC officials and people involved with cloud seeding are trying hard to prove it is a success, when it is hardly one."
The BMC, however, is yet to get rain gauges that will estimate the amount of artificial rainfall in the city.
"We can't estimate the rainfall caused by cloud seeding, as we don't have any system to find out. We plan to install rain gauges in catchment areas soon," said Anil Diggikar, additional municipal commissioner.
ExperimentsCaptain Arvind Sharma of Bangalore-based Agni Aviation, which conducted aerial cloud seeding (see box), said, "It is difficult to say whether the experiments are a success, as there are no rain gauges set up that would enable us to record the artificial rainfall."
The experiments will continue till October. "In a week or 10 days, rain clouds will start withdrawing," said the MET official.
Cloud SeedingShantilal Meckoni began the conventional method of ground cloud seeding on July 11, but it is yet to yield significant results.
Out of 20 scheduled operations, costing around Rs 16 lakh, five are left. Each attempt requires 60 kg of silver iodide.
Meanwhile, aerial cloud seeding, which is being conducted by Agni Aviation, started on August 23 at a cost of Rs 8 crore.
