Attempt to induce artificial rain fails in Solapur

Mumbai: The first attempts to induce artificial rainfall in drought-hit Solapur failed to yield positive results Wednesday. Three planes that arrived in Solapur Tuesday for this purpose flew about 200 kilometres Wednesday but did not find suitable clouds for cloud seeding.

On Wednesday when Mumbai was hit by heavy rain, the planes could not find suitable clouds for cloud seeding in the Solapur district. A day before the actual attempt at cloud seeding, a survey was carried out to find a location for cloud seeding.

Meanwhile, a radar was deployed at the revenue department’s divisional office for cloud mapping. Everything was set as per requirement but the attempts failed, as there were no suitable clouds. With that, the season’s first attempt at inducing artificial rain through cloud seeding failed.

Cloud seeding was considered necessary as by the second week of July, not enough rainfall had been reported in the district. Nearly 24 to 36 districts of the state were facing a severe rain deficit. Parts of Marathwada and Vidarbha were parched.

The central government had set up the inspection centre at the Sinhgad Institute in Solapur.

The state government, too, made a provision of Rs 30 crore for cloud seeding at Aurangabad, Shegaon and Solapur. Two radars were placed at Aurangabad and Solapur.

Prior to this, in 2003, 2004, 2010 and 2011, the state government had tried cloud seeding but the attempts had failed to bring about positive results back then too.