PUNE: The Solapur district collector was forced to withdraw his directive on making artificial rain — by burning rubber tyres along with twigs from latex-producing trees and salt — just a day after it was issued following an outcry from scientists and environmentalists.Burning of tyres releases noxious gases like cyanide, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide and has been banned by the National Green Tribunal. The environmentalists had to point this out to Rajendra Bhosale, the collector. Other scientists also called this artificial “rainmaking” recipe unscientific and toxic.On Friday, Bhosale had issued a verbal directive to 11 tehsils, asking the officials to burn rubber, twigs and salt at 1026 spots to attract rain in the district that has received only 35% of its average rainfall this season. The villagers were assured that rain would follow within 24 -96 hours. Even as the experiment commenced in some places, environmentalists informed the collector that “burning of tyres was against environment rules,” forcing him to withdraw the order.Bhosale, meanwhile, said the recipe came from Raja Marathe, an IIT Bombay alumnus. He got in touch with Marathe after hearing about him.“I was told burning twigs , rubber and salt together can also help in the artificial rain process. It was done in consultation with an IIT scientist. He had assured me that this is a tried and tested formula as well. So we initiated it only on an experimental basis. However, when some environmentalists told me about the hazard, I put a stop to it all,” Bhosale said on Saturday.Talking to TOI, 73-year-old Marathe stood by his experimental method — which he calls Varunyantra. He claimed that in the past nine years of experimentation, Varunyantra has managed to successfully yield rain. The experiment vapourises salt into the atmosphere at high temperatures to get rain. “Hundreds of experiments, each requiring just two large tyres and 50kg of salt yielded 3-5 mm of rain in 4-5 sqkm area. This works out to about 500 tankers of water, valued at Rs 5lakh. All this from an experiment costing less than Rs 500,” he said. Marathe claimed the environmental benefits far outweigh the environmental costs because “the rain cools the earth and reduces global warming .” He added the “progressive and farmer-centric collector” may have withdrawn the orders due to his position as a government official. “The farmers need rain and city-dwelling, arm-chair environmentalists do not understand their suffering,” he said.Marathe’s claims were countered by J V Kulkarni, a former scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) and project head of the cloud-seeding experiment.“This method is unscientific. The burning of tyres generates cyanide, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide and many other harmful gases. This experiment involves burning of tyres, wood and sodium chloride, where sodium is made to melt and evaporate. It is then expected to reach the cloud base. What is the guarantee that the sodium will reach the cloud base, as even strong winds can disperse it in the atmosphere?” asked Kulkarni. He also pointed out that he could not find the mention of the experiment’s quantified results in any scientific forum or research paper. “We can only say that such burning will increase atmospheric pollution,” he said.Environmentalist and NGT lawyer Asim Sarode, who alerted the SP of Rural police, said this was an unscientific approach to generate artificial rainfall. “Tyre burning in public places without valid permission leads to potential air pollution and health hazards. It is banned as per the judgement issued by the National Green Tribunal (order of September 6, 2014),” he states. The police authorities, district administration and urban local bodies have been directed to ensure compliance of the order and prohibit the burning of tyres, he added.This season, Solapur had received only 172 mm rainfall. The usual average mean seasonal rainfall for the district is 488 mm. The shortfall this year is nearly 65 per cent.

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