Each winter, Delhi disappears behind a thick, grey wall of smog. The air turns heavy, eyes burn, and every breath feels like work. For the city’s 30 million residents, this is an annual crisis.

This year, the government is turning to the sky for help — literally. It plans to make it rain.

The Delhi government, along with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur and the India Meteorological Department (IMD), is preparing to attempt cloud seeding — a scientific process that can trigger artificial rainfall.

If the weather cooperates between 28 and 30 October 2025, specially equipped aircraft will fly over the capital’s skies and try to make rain fall where none is forecast.

The goal: to wash out the thick mix of dust and pollutants sitting over the city and give residents temporary relief from toxic air.

Cloud seeding is like giving clouds a gentle nudge.

Normally, clouds hold tiny water droplets that are too small to fall as rain. Scientists introduce very fine particles — often silver iodide, sodium chloride (salt), or dry ice — into existing clouds. These particles act as “seeds” around which water vapour can gather and grow into heavier droplets.

When the droplets become large enough, they fall to the ground as rain.

So, it doesn’t “create” clouds; it helps existing ones........

© The Better India