Overview
- The government issued an order on August 28 to form a six‑member Monitoring Committee and an eight‑member Technical Advisory and Evaluation Committee to supervise and guide the cloud seeding exercise.
- Officials approved about Rs 28.52 crore for a 60‑day programme that will run roughly 200 hours with daily flights between 8 am and 6 pm across the state’s four revenue divisions.
- Karnataka Neeravari Nigam Limited and the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre will jointly implement operations and the state has contracted Kyathi Climate Modification Consultants LLP with an exemption from the public procurement law.
- Authorities say seeding can produce rain within about a 15‑kilometre radius when suitable clouds are present but outcomes are not guaranteed and past state attempts recorded roughly an 18–20% success rate.
- The programme is meant to protect standing crops from drought and could draw scrutiny over the procurement exemption and the scientific limits of cloud seeding as officials seek a 30% success threshold to deem the effort worthwhile.