The preparatory drill for artificial rain through cloud seeding continued on Saturday with an exploratory drone flown over Ramgarh dam to assess meteorological conditions and collect data.
Scientists of the US-based Climate Engineering Company “Accel1” and officials of the Agriculture Department flew a drone over Ramgarh Dam for 35 minutes. The drone covered a 25-km area to help scientists assess climatic conditions and related data.
Local BJP MLA Mahendra Meena and his party followers were present.
This drill is part of a pilot project to explore the viability of inducing rains through cloud seeding over the dam, which has remained dry for the past 20 years.
The attempt to induce rain was initially scheduled for July 30 but was later deferred to August 12, when large crowds of spectators gathered at the venue. Conflicting mobile phone signals from the spectators disrupted the drone’s connectivity, causing the US company’s bid to fail last Tuesday.
Agriculture Minister Dr Kirodi Lal Meena announced that the drill would continue for the next two months.
The first artificial rain in India was induced in Kerala using an aircraft for cloud seeding. The use of drones for this purpose is being tried here for the first time in the country.