State opts for cloud-seeding

Gandhinagar, July 26: Even as the rain gods are yet to bless many parts of Gujarat this season, the State Agriculture Department has deci...

Gandhinagar, July 26: Even as the rain gods are yet to bless many parts of Gujarat this season, the State Agriculture Department has decided to conduct an experiment for artificial rains through cloud-seeding in areas where there is shortage of water.

The Department has drawn up plans to induce rains within a week using silver iodised powder 8212; a chemical that may cause cloud-burst in certain drought-prone areas of Saurashtra, Kutch and Banaskantha.

Disclosing this to media persons here on Monday, Minister of State for Agriculture Becharbhai Badhani explained, quot;The chemical will be first ignited so as to create smoke which will reach the monsoon clouds hanging over the affected areas causing cloud-burst in those areas after a certain chemical processquot;.

The Minister said the silver iodised powder costing about Rs 7,000 a kg would be purchased from Mumbai 8212; the only place where a handful of industrial units manufacture the chemical. Initially, 20 to 25 kg powder will be purchased to conduct the experiment.

The requisite quantity of the chemical would be taken to a hillock in a particular area, so that the smoke emanating from it could reach the clouds and chill them to cause artificial rains in that area, Badhani explained. He said the Department would undertake similar exercise if the experiment was successful.

Joint Director Agriculture B T Lathia said that in the recent past the experiments of cloud-seeding by spraying the chemicals using helicopters had been carried out in certain rain-shortage parts of the State, but without much success. Hence, the Department decided to carry out this new experiment which will be cheaper.

Lathia said the Department had conducted a cloud-seeding experiment using the silver iodised powder in 1992. But, the experiment did not yield positive results, as it was carried out at the fag end of the monsoon that year and in the absence of thick clouds.

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He ruled out the possibility of the chemical causing pollution or posing any health hazard while the cloud-seeding experiment was being conducted. quot;We will create smoke from the powder, keeping in mind various aspects including the wind direction and the formation of thick monsoon clouds,quot; the official said.