CLOUD SEEDING CONSPIRACIES: ENGINEERING THE SKY, MISTRUSTING THE GROUND

1. WHAT IS CLOUD SEEDING?

Cloud seeding is a weather modification technique used to artificially trigger rainfall. It typically involves dispersing silver iodide, potassium chloride, or dry ice into moisture-laden clouds to enhance precipitation.

First developed in the 1940s, it's now widely used in over 50 countries — including India. States like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana have launched multi-crore cloud seeding missions during drought years.

> “Rain can be engineered now. But is it still ours?”

— Mallamma, farmer, Kalaburagi

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2. WHAT’S THE PROMISE?

According to official claims:

Cloud seeding increases rainfall by 10–20%

Helps drought-prone regions

Improves reservoir levels

Boosts agricultural yield

ISRO, IMD, and various private players (like Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre and Weather Modification Inc.) have conducted or supported cloud seeding operations in India.

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3. WHERE THE DISTRUST BEGINS

Despite these claims, villagers and farmers remain deeply suspicious. Over the years, they have observed patterns that defy official explanations:

Clear skies suddenly darken after planes pass.

Crops rot after intense, unseasonal rain.

Certain villages never get rainfall, even when nearby cities flood.

Pests and fungi appear after short, heavy seeded showers.

> “We may not have degrees, but we know the sky. They are playing with clouds.”

— Basavaraj, a millet grower from Bidar

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4. POPULAR CONSPIRACIES: WHAT PEOPLE BELIEVE

A. WEATHER AS A WEAPON

Governments or foreign powers are using cloud seeding to:

Create droughts or floods in sensitive regions

Push farmers into debt to benefit banks and seed corporations

Suppress unrest by engineering hardship

REAL HISTORICAL EXAMPLE:

Operation Popeye (Vietnam War) – The US military used cloud seeding to prolong monsoons, damaging enemy supply routes.

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B. GEOENGINEERING WITHOUT CONSENT

Villagers suspect they are subjects of experimental atmospheric manipulation:

Planes spray silver iodide or unknown chemicals

There is no public announcement or explanation

No impact studies shared in local languages

Scientific concerns:

Silver iodide can accumulate in soil and water.

Over-seeding can lead to hail, rot, and pest attacks.

A study published in Atmospheric Research (2003) concluded that effects of cloud seeding remain inconclusive, especially over tropical regions like India.

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C. URBAN BIAS IN RAINFALL

Some believe rainfall is diverted from:

Farmlands to cities or dams

Remote villages to industrial belts

Clouds are seeded over target zones like Hyderabad or Bengaluru outskirts, possibly draining moisture before clouds move to other areas.

> “Our clouds are being stolen. Bengaluru gets floods, we get cracked earth.”

— Farmer from Raichur

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D. MONSOON MISMANAGEMENT LINKED TO CORPORATE INTERESTS

Unseasonal rains arrive just after fertiliser purchases rise. Droughts trigger insurance schemes that benefit private companies. Floods occur before elections, triggering relief packages.

Corporate players involved in cloud seeding include:

Seeding Operations and Atmospheric Research (SOAR)

Weather Modification Inc. (USA)

Kite India Pvt Ltd (cloud seeding in Karnataka, 2021)

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5. WHY THESE CONSPIRACIES GAIN TRACTION

A. HISTORY OF MEDICAL & ENVIRONMENTAL DECEPTION IN INDIA

Bhopal gas leak (1984) – delayed response, denial of harm.

Endosulfan pesticide in Kasaragod – banned after decades of child deformities.

GMO crop trials in Vidarbha – conducted without informed consent.

Aadhaar data leaks and “voluntary” linking — perceived control over identity.

These memories fuel general mistrust of “scientific” interventions in poor communities.

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B. ABSENCE OF TRANSPARENCY

Despite spending ₹20–₹40 crore per project:

Villagers don’t know when or where seeding happens

Impact data is not made public

No independent audit is required

Environmental Clearance (EC) is not mandatory under current laws

In RTI replies, many state governments simply say:

> “Records not available.”

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C. NATURAL VARIABILITY NOT EXPLAINED WELL

While cloud seeding may influence rain, India’s climate is already volatile:

El Niño & La Niña cycles affect rainfall across the country

Deforestation, urban heat islands, and pollution also disrupt clouds

These natural causes are not communicated to villagers, leading them to interpret engineered intent behind every weather shift.

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6. POLICY, LAW, AND ETHICS

CLOUD SEEDING IN INDIA: A GREY ZONE

No central regulation governs cloud seeding.

State disaster management bodies often partner with private companies with no accountability.

No consent is taken from the people below the clouds.

Compare this to medical ethics: even for a minor drug trial, consent is mandatory. But for modifying the sky, no one asks.

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7. THE SCIENCE ITSELF: STAGNANT & UNVERIFIED

A 2018 Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) study reviewed multiple seeding projects:

Found no conclusive evidence that it helped drought-proofing

Emphasised the need for better instruments, monitoring, and climate models

Yet state governments continue massive projects:

Karnataka's Varshadhari project (2021): ₹89 crore

Maharashtra's Project Meghdoot (2015–16): ₹27 crore

Most reports remain unpublished or inaccessible.

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8. PARALLELS: OTHER “SOFT CONSPIRACIES” IN INDIA

Sterilisation fears during vaccination drives

Polio drops conspiracy in Muslim areas (due to secret trials in the past)

Fluoridated water suspected of dulling minds

Aadhaar–fertiliser–bank linking seen as a way to track dissent

None of these fears came from nowhere. Each has a history of betrayal, secrecy, or silencing.

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9. WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE

✅ PUBLIC RIGHT TO KNOW

Advance notice of cloud seeding operations

Impact reports in local languages

Public access to rainfall, soil, and health data post-seeding

✅ SCIENTIFIC ACCOUNTABILITY

Involve agronomists, soil scientists, and ecologists, not just meteorologists

Fund peer-reviewed impact studies

Conduct village-level awareness drives

✅ DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION

Require Panchayat-level consent

Allow citizen observers and NGOs to monitor operations

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10. FINAL THOUGHT

Cloud seeding may not be a conspiracy — but the way it is done certainly looks like one. When the government seeds clouds without warning, when planes spray the skies before floods, when crop insurance rises and grains rot, when silver rains on dry fields — the poor will ask questions. And they deserve answers.

> “The sky belongs to us too. We live under it every day.”

— Adivasi elder, Chhattisgarh

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IT DOESN’T RAIN HERE ANYMORE

A poem about cloud seeding, doubt, and sky theft

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it doesn’t rain here anymore,

not like it used to.

not the kind that smells like soil opening its petals

or buffaloes grunting in puddles

or kids running half-naked

with buckets of laughter.

no, now it rains like a cough.

short. hard. chemical.

it floods too fast,

or not at all.

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somewhere above,

they send silver needles into soft clouds.

they poke holes

in things we prayed to.

they call it science.

they call it rescue.

and we —

we just call it theft.

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in bidar, mallamma watches her jowar dry

as planes scribble the sky with white wounds.

“they wrote something,” she says.

“but not for us.”

her husband says nothing.

his seeds died last season

under sudden rains

that came like police raids.

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in bengaluru, the lakes flood.

they seed the clouds there,

near tech parks and politicians.

and the clouds dump their shame,

rushing into underpasses

and half-built malls.

floods get contracts.

droughts get speeches.

villages get nothing

but apologies and grain bags

with government logos

that expire faster than trust.

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I read about it in dull government PDFs

buried behind login screens.

Varshadhari Project.

Meghdoot Scheme.

₹30 crore for fake rain,

no audit, no farmer’s name,

just tender notices

and satellite charts

while the men on the ground

tie torn plastic over their pumps

and wait for a sky

that no longer listens.

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they say silver iodide makes the rain fall.

I say it makes the truth rust.

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in the northeastern hills,

they whisper that floods aren’t natural.

that monsoon dances have stopped working.

that tribal gods don’t like tampered skies.

and who can blame them?

when the rains come

right after the fertiliser trucks leave.

when pest attacks follow artificial clouds.

when politicians show up only

after the seeds are dead

and the insurance claims are ready.

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they used to ask permission

before putting things in our mouths —

vaccines, pills, polio drops.

now they pour chemicals over our heads

without warning,

without consent,

without explanation.

you need a signature for an x-ray,

but not to rearrange the weather.

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someone said it’s to help the farmers.

but which farmer?

the one who migrates?

the one whose borewell cracked open the earth

and found nothing but worms?

the one who sprayed pesticide

into his own throat

because the rain came

a month too late

and a week too strong?

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they say conspiracies are for fools.

but the fool has seen things:

planes in a sky that doesn’t belong to him,

dams filled while his well is dry,

relief camps after the relief rains,

dead bees,

rotten roots,

smoke in the wind,

mildew in the cotton.

the fool has seen

too much

to stay silent.

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they tried to fix the sky

without fixing the ground.

they tried to erase hunger

without feeding the soil.

they tried to control rain

without listening to the rainmakers.

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ask the old women —

they remember when the frogs croaked louder

and that meant clouds.

they remember the scent of real thunder.

they say the new thunder smells different.

like battery acid and ego.

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the bureaucrats in Delhi

don’t taste the grain.

they taste contracts.

the scientists in Pune

don’t walk barefoot on sunburnt soil.

they walk into labs

and call it “geoengineering.”

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I call it betrayal.

the kind that doesn’t shout.

the kind that floats.

the kind that drips into your food

and waits.

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and when the last cloud dies,

they’ll still be debating

whether it was a weather shift

or just

another

technical error.

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but we will know.

we always knew.

the sky changed

because someone sold it.

not to us.

never to us.

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and it doesn’t rain here anymore.

not like it used to.

not like when the rain was

ours.

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end.