India is set to deploy the country’s first cloud seeding project in a bid to wash away pollution in Delhi, the world’s most polluted city.
The Delhi government has announced that the city’s first cloud seeding flight trial has been successfully conducted ahead of a full-scale deployment on 29 October 2025, weather permitting.
Rekha Gupta, chief minister of Delhi, said in a statement that the city is “ready to induce artificial rain through cloud seeding for the first time in its history”.
She added that this “ambitious pollution-control experiment” represents a major technological milestone to combat Delhi’s worsening air quality.
Delhi is ranked as one of the most polluted cities in the world. In November 2021, schools were closed indefinitely and some coal-based power plants shut down as Delhi invoked harsh measures to combat worsening air pollution.
However, air-quality levels continue to remain “severe”, the highest level on an air quality index scale. In 2024, pollution levels rose...