Hope for Marathwada: Private companies seed rains in Maharashtra's parched lands

PUNE: With the weather living up to its fickle nature, private players are making good money by predicting the weather and offering weather-based products. But they are not stopping at that-they are now offering cloud seeding services to states which are desperately hoping for the heavens to open up.

The Maharashtra government will try artificial cloud seeding in Aurangabad with the help of a private company, while another private educational institute tried to generate rains unsuccessfully in Nashik on Monday, using sugar-propelled rockets.

After a gap of 13 years, Maharashtra has decided to try out artificial rainfall in the Marathwada region of the state, which faces the highest rainfall deficiency of 57 per cent in the country.

The state government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Khyathi Climate Modification Consultants (KCMC) to execute cloud seeding over the next three months. Aurangabad, the administrative headquarters of the Marathwada region, will be the scene of action with a radius of 250 kilometres.

As it's getting late to get a radar in place, the state government has decided to go ahead with its trial cloud seeding, using a plane's radar. If the experiment succeeds, it won't be of much help for any fresh sowing of kharif crops, except fodder crops.

Meanwhile, International School of Professional Studies (ISPS), a private Mumbai-based educational institute, tried out cloud seeding which didn't work. "We used sugar-fuelled rockets, a patented technology, for nucleating the clouds with Silver Iodide," said AR Vanoo, a trustee of ISPS.