Artificial way of causing rainfall to reduce air pollution makes use of
Show answer
Answer: A. Cloud seeding sprays chemicals that act as nuclei for water droplets or ice crystals. The common agents are silver iodide and potassium iodide, along with dry ice and common salt. Delhi's cloud-seeding trials against pollution (IIT Kanpur, October 2025) also used silver iodide-based flares.
Watch for: Silver nitrate sounds similar to silver iodide but is not used for seeding.
Why the other options are wrong
- B. Silver nitrate is not a cloud-seeding agent.
- C. Potassium nitrate is not used in cloud seeding.
- D. Neither silver nitrate nor potassium chloride is a standard seeding agent.
Source to check: IITM Pune CAIPEEX cloud seeding reports; PIB releases on cloud seeding.
Answer from the official UPSC key. Written and fact-checked by AI against the official key. Spotted a mistake? Report it.