HYDERABAD: There is light at the end of the tunnel for those involved in cloud-seeding operations.

Two premier Central research organisations — National Geophysical Research Institute and Indian Institute of Chemical Technology — both at Hyderabad, have certified the presence of calcium in the water samples collected at different places during rainfall following cloud-seeding.

The operations have been conducted for 90 days in the State so far, using calcium chloride as the seed material.

The findings of the chemical analysis by NGRI and IICT have come as a shot in arm to the Government amidst criticism from different quarters against the efficacy of the operations.

Prof I. V. Murali Krishna, Director, Centre for Atmospheric Sciences & Weather Modification Technologies, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, presently overseeing the exercise, hopes that this will clear all doubts and silence critics.

The samples were tested earlier by the Environment Protection, Training & Research Institute but the results, claimed positive, were widely contested as the institution belongs to the State Government. Incidentally, the findings of the chemical analysis made by labs of the Rural Water Supply wing, Panchayat Raj, along with NGRI and IICT, tallied with that of the latter.

Meanwhile, cloud-seeding operations for this year, launched on September 19, are being closed on Monday while the Government has decided to continue the exercise as a long-term policy to combat drought.

The gain out of about 300 hours of firing the flares by two aeroplanes over 10 districts, has been estimated at 16,000 million cubic metres of water — which is equal to four times the full storage of Osmansagar.

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