However, in order to combat the air pollution in the national capital, scientists are soon going to seed clouds to clear the toxic rain. | Photo Credit: ANI

New Delhi: Scientists from IIT (Kanpur) will attempt to mitigate the hazardous health situation in Delhi-NCR region by inducing artificial rain over the national capital. This is the first time in India that artificial rain would be created over a big land mass to counter the damage done by air pollutants.

Delhi air pollution made global headlines when many of the areas in the national capital region turned up in the list of top 10 most-polluted places on earth. According to the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC), India is the world's second most polluted country. This has resulted in the shortening of an average Indian's life by more than four years.

According to a report in the Times of India, the idea of artificial rain is expected to materialise this week, with scientists just waiting for meteorological conditions to fall into place for the cloud seeding. In the study by the University, it calculated the effect of air quality on life expectancy. The air quality life expectancy (AQLE) is an index that translates particulate air pollution into its impact.

Also Read: Air pollution cuts average Indian's life expectancy by over 4 years: Study

News agency IANS reported that the study mentioned that the loss of life expectancy is highest in Asia, exceeding six years in many parts of India and China. Professor Michael Greenstone, the Milton Friedman Professor in Economics and Director of the EPIC said, "Around the world today, people are breathing air that represents a serious risk to their health. But the way this risk is communicated is very often opaque and confusing, translating air pollution concentrations into colors, like red, brown, orange, and green. What those colors mean for people's wellbeing has always been unclear."

TOI reported, Ken Lee, executive director of EPIC India said that in Delhi the pollution concentration 2016 averaged 113 micrograms per cubic metre. Based on the research life expectancy would be more than 10 years longer for people in Delhi if the World Health Organisation standards had been met. However, Delhi's annual average PM2.5 concentration was 114 microns/cubic metre. WHO standard is 10 and the Indian standard is 40.

Seventy-five per cent of the global population, or 5.5 billion people, live in areas where particulate pollution exceeds the WHO guideline.

However, in order to combat the air pollution in the national capital, scientists are soon going to seed clouds to clear the toxic rain. Reportedly, the country has tested the technique on a very limited scale by using two aircraft in the rain shadow region of Solapur, Maharashtra.



