The Delhi government’s first cloud seeding trial on Tuesday, October 28, has been termed as ‘not completely successful’ by IIT Kanpur Director Manindra Agarwal, whose institute collaborated with the local government to carry out the experiment, aimed at reducing air pollution in India’s national capital.
Speaking to NDTV, Agarwal stated that the low moisture content in the clouds made the attempt unsuccessful, adding that the procedure would be repeated on Wednesday, October 29.
As per Agarwal, the team used a mixture that contained only 20 percent silver iodide. The rest of it was a combination of rock salt and common salt. On Tuesday, the team fired 14 flares.
IIT Kanpur conducted a cloud seeding mission to trigger artificial rainfall aimed at reducing pollution levels in the city. Flares were released from an aircraft using advanced technology 👇 pic.twitter.com/k5AflDOfKx
— BJP Delhi (@BJP4Delhi) October 28, 2025
“There hasn’t been any rain so far. So, in that sense, it was not completely successful. But, unfortunately, the clouds that are present today do not have very high moisture content. I am told it was only up to 15-20%. So, the possibility of causing rain with such low moisture content is not very high. But this trial has given more confidence to our team that we can continue conducting them,” the IIT Kanpur director said, as quoted by NDTV.
#WATCH | Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh: On cloud seeding in Delhi, Manindra Agrawal, Director of IIT Kanpur, says, "We did not get a lot of cloud moisture. It was only around 15%. Given the low moisture content, the possibility of rain is very small. So we did not achieve success from… pic.twitter.com/f9bErKASND
— ANI (@ANI) October 29, 2025
“There have been conflicting reports of the predictions about rain today. Some say there will be rain, some say there won’t be. But what our team found was that the cloud cover had very little moisture content. And this could be true about the part we flew over… So we do not expect any rain to occur today,” he added.
Agarwal, however, warned that cloud seeding is not a permanent solution, rather one that should be used in SOS basis. “The permanent solution, of course, is to control the sources of pollution,” he said.
ALSO READ: Delhi conducts first cloud-seeding trial to tackle rising air pollution
Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta had earlier described the project as a vital step in addressing the city’s environmental crisis. Speaking to ANI, she said, “Cloud seeding is a necessity for Delhi and is the first experiment of its kind. We want to try it in Delhi to see if it can help us control this very serious environmental problem.”
She added, “So the blessings of the people of Delhi are with the government, and we feel that this will be a successful experiment and in the future, we will be able to overcome these environmental problems.”
