Buoyed by the success of the 2017 cloud seeding experiment, the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department has sought approval this year for possible cloud seeding in 2019. “By December, we can call for tenders. By February, the selected agency can start work. It takes 45 days to get approvals from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, and other permissions. Assuming the timeline stays, cloud seeding can be taken up by the start of the monsoon,” said a senior official.
In the larger scheme of things, the department, which got into cloud seeding in 2017 as an ad hoc measure after the Water Resources Ministry claimed they were overburdened, is looking at the State government to set up a separate cell, much like the Weather Modification Office in China, which routinely conducts cloud seeding.
“It is required. And with the right people, it can make a big difference,” said V.S. Prakash, former head of Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Committee.