“A corporator who had called on me chanced upon my documents of artificial rainfall in 1992. He asked me to visit BMC and explain the process. The next day, I was given the job,” he said, in his office at Prabhadevi.
“We have asked Meckoni and IMD to study the feasibility of artificial rain,” said additional municipal commissioner, (projects), Anil Diggikar.
Meckoni, however, cautioned: “The present situation is worse than in 1992. The population has increased and so has the water requirement.”
On July 23, 1992, with a handful of men and city engineers, the rainmaker set up 10 stations in a three km radius of Tansa and Upper Vaitarna lakes. The experiments began at 10.30 am once the atmospheric conditions were found right. In half an hour, iodide fumes from generators reached the clouds; within an hour, it rained.
“Not many people believed it but it does rain within 90 minutes. It rained up to 100 mm in the lake areas and later there was a continuous downpour,” Meckoni said.
The process involves sprinkling silver iodide droplets on flaming charcoal. The iodide vapour, its properties similar to that of ice particles, rises and increases the cloud density to the required 1 lakh ice particles per cubic metre. “At a temperature lower than 5°C at cloud summit, the silver iodide crystallizes, attracts moisture and soon condenses resulting in rainfall,” he said.
Meckoni estimates it would cost the BMC Rs 10 lakh for 10 experiments in the 6-km radius of lake areas. The experiments can be repeated till it rains.
Born in drought-prone Kutch in Gujarat, Meckoni first learnt of cloud seeding after a chance meeting with an Israeli farmer who would not accept the absence of vegetation due to low rainfall. “He suggested inducing rainfall like farmers did in Israel,” Meckoni said.
After a year of learning, the commerce student experimented in his native village in 1992. “It rained a lot and all villagers were happy,” he said. The next stop was Bombay which was hit by a water crisis.
Yet, the rainman prefers natural rain. “Artificial rainfall is the last resort in a crisis but I am praying that it rains naturally. Nothing can match the magic of natural rain.”