Cloud seeding: Do we have facilities?

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While the state government is considering cloud seeding as an option to help farmers cope with the delayed monsoon, agricultural experts in drought- prone North Karnataka are unhappy it has built little infrastructure over the years for such an operation or encouraged research into it.

They point out the government has not bothered to establish Doppler weather radars, a study centre for cloud seeding, or rain gauge centres in the taluk headquarters to gather data on the rainfall received after such an operation as recommended by experts in the field.

It was in 2003 that a cloud-seeding operation, Project Varuna, was carried out for the first time in the state.

Clouds were sprayed with particles of calcium chloride and so on in 26 districts and radar control rooms established in Gadag and Jakkur in Bengaluru to identify the size and moisture content of the clouds.

Although the operation was successful , it has not been repeated since despite the recurring drought in North Karnataka and the several recommendations made by the experts, who spearheaded the last one nearly a decade ago, still remain on paper.

“After Project Varuna proved 80 per cent successful we made several recommendations, including the installation of three Dopplar radars across the state to identify the availability of clouds, keeping two aircrafts ready for cloud seeding , and establishing a permanent study centre at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) for it.

But, the state government did not implement any of them, although neighbouring Andhra Pradesh has been conducting cloud seeding every year in the drought-prone districts”, regrets Dr Arun Patil, who was technical co-ordinator of Project Varuna.

Former minister, H.K. Patil, who is director of the K.H. Patil Krishi Vignyan Kendra, feels cloud seeding is the only option to help farmers facing a drought every year in the state.