NEED FOR CLOUD SEEDING The key role played by a good water supply as an engine of economic growth and as a yard stick of public welfare and national prosperity has been well recognized by the intellectuals of the developed countries like USA who aptly named water as the “Blue Gold”. The more the water wealth of a nation the higher will be the opportunities for achieving high rates of progress in the fields of agriculture production and industrial growth that help in promoting economic wealth, employment opportunities and higher standards of living. Hence the advanced countries are constantly upgrading their water resources by harnessing not only all the ground and surface waters but also by tapping a renewable, virtually unlimited and unexploited sky water resource in the atmosphere in the form of innumerable clouds. Enlightened scientists, bureaucrats, industrialists and statesmen in about 50 countries are frequently using cloud seeding operations for over 40 years for various purposes like 1. Increase of annual rainfall for drinking and agricultural purposes, 2. dispersal of fog in airports and metropolitan city roads 3. Increase of hydro-power generation at the cheapest cost 4. Suppression of hail storms to reduce damage to life, crops and properties 5. mitigation of devastating impacts of recurring droughts 6. mitigation of damaging impacts of global warming and summer temperatures 7. increase of annual rain fall for improving the forests, wildlife and the environment Several progressive countries like USA, Australia, China, Thailand, European states, former states of USSR, Latin American states, Arab states, Indonesia and Pakistan are getting highly benefited by employing the advanced cloud seeding technologies for the above purposes.. Several Indian states interested in promoting economic growth, agriculture development and public welfare are eager to learn from the successful experiences of other countries like China and USA and adopt those technologies by making necessary modifications to suit the local meteorological, topographical, geographical and other environmental conditions. Rice is Life — The International Year of Rice (IYR) 2004 The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) declared 2004 as the International Year of Rice (IYR). The theme of the IYR - “Rice is life”- reflects the importance of rice as a primary food source, and is drawn from an understanding that rice-based systems are essential for food security, poverty alleviation and improved livelihood. Rice is the staple food of over half of the world’s population. In Asia alone, it is observed, more than 2 billion people obtain 60 to 70 per cent of their energy intake from rice and its derivatives; it is the most rapidly growing food source in Africa and is of significant importance to food security in an increasing number of low- income food-deficit countries. Rice-based production systems and their associated post-harvest operations employ nearly 1 billion people in rural areas of developing countries and about four-fifths of the world’s rice is grown by small-scale farmers in low-income countries. Efficient and productive rice-based systems are, therefore, essential to economic development and improved quality of life, particularly in rural areas. (http://indiabudget.nic.in) Refusal of cloud seeding operations means promoting water and food scarcity, diseases, poverty, unemployment and blocking economic prosperity of a nation. — an environmentalist view 1 Water scarcity due to population growth : If water availability in different countries is considered from 1950 it is found that the water availability per person per year is gradually decreasing from the year 1950 and the deficit is getting more and more in African and Asian countries due to the rapid population growth, urbanisation and industrialisation during the recent decades. The water availability is assumed to be the river run-off formed in the territory of a given region and summed up with half the inflow of the river from outside. As the population increases the water consumption also rises and the value of specific water availability in a state gets gradually reduced. The water availability for selected countries for the period from 1950 to 2025 is presented here to show a great unevenness in the distribution of water per capita per year in different countries. For instance Canada has the greatest water availability of about 175,000 cubic meters per capita per annum in the year 2000 but the densely populated countries of Asia, South Europe and Africa get only a moderate quantity of 1200 to 5000 cubic meters per year. But in North Africa and Arabia the water availability is about 200 to 300 cubic meters per person per year but availability at less than 2000 cubic meter per person per year is "low" while less than 1000 cubic meters is "catastrophically low" and consequently such low availability of water unavoidably possess a serious threat to public health, industrial and agricultural development besides causing damage to the environmental assets of a nation. The global charts presented below indicate the specific water availability of every region as designated with a shading colour by the different grades (in 1000 m3 / person / year of water availability). http://webworld.unesco.org/water/ihp/db/ shiklomanov/summary/html/figure_12.html In 1950 specific water availability was generally above average in many countries except North Africa where it was very low. However in Central and South Europe and North China and South Asia including India it was "low" at a level of 2000 to 5000 cubic meters per person per year. The "catastrophically low" water availability was experienced in some regions of the world by the year 2000 particularly in North Africa, Arabian states, "very low" in North China, South and West Asia including India. Presently about 80% of the population in some regions get less than 5000 cubic meters per person per year. About one-third of the earth’s population have a very low or catastrophically low levels of water supply and this situation will deteriorate year after year. Scientists warn that by the year 2025 most of the nations have to face very serious water scarcity problems with low and a catastrophically low water supplies. More than one-third of the population may face "catastrophically low" fresh water supplies of less than 1000 cubic meters per person per year. However high levels of water availability will be experienced by the people in North Europe, Canada, Alaska, South America, Central Africa, Siberia and the Far East. Hence most of the countries have to plan for water conservation measures including cloud seeding to tap the abundant sky water in the clouds for protecting public health and promoting economic growth, industrial development and sustainable environment. In fact the intellectuals of China are working to solve the problems of water scarcity, suppress the damage due to hail storms and are reducing the summer temperature by cloud seeding to save electrical power used for air conditioning and thereby improving the water availability for agriculture and economic prosperity of the nation. It is high time that the scientists, the bureaucrats and the political leaders of India should learn from the experiences of China and Texas on how cloud seeding operations can be used to promote public health, economic growth and prosperity of India. Forests influence rainfall : Forests protect watersheds and regulate stream flows by retaining some rainwater in the soil by their root network through sponge effect. One million ha forest area is estimated to 2 have a water holding capacity of 300 to 350 TMC of rainwater. Some scientists estimate that about 50% of all rain water evaporates from the leaves of trees and plantations in a forest while the balance feeds the river courses continuously. According to one scientific study made in 1982-83 by Dr.Salati, Professor of Meteorology at Saopaulo University, the water and energy balance, the life support system of a land area depends upon the type of soil cover present in a region. The studies in a Guatemalan Forest show that the water is returned to the air by the trees and help to create the clouds. The release of water through the pores of trees and other plants known as “transpiration” accounts for about half or more of all the moisture returned to the air. Dr.Salati showed that the forest near Manaus in Brazil recycle 75% of the rain back into the atmosphere by evaporation and transpiration and about 25% of the rain was diverted into the river as run-off. About 25% of the rain was evaporated back into the atmosphere from the rain drops that stayed on the leaves while another 50% was returned to the air above the forest by transpiration. In the process of transpiration the moisture absorbed by the tree roots from the soil is carried by the plant’s vascular system back up to the leaves and then exuded through the pores of the leaves. Thus a good tropical forest recycles water efficiently because about 50% of the rainfall returns to the atmosphere by transpiration, while about 25% of the rainwater gets evaporated from the leaf surfaces and the remaining 25% of the rainfall appears as ground water run-off in the nearby stream. Since tropical forests constitute about one half of the world’s 48 million sq.miles of wooded land, it is necessary to understand how deforestation in different regions may influence weather and climate patterns and the ability of forests to influence the creation and promotion of clouds and rainfall. Deforestation in the catchment areas of rivers and their tributaries promote higher rates of run-off that result in flooding of low land areas. It is estimated that land covered by tree plantation collects and returns to the air atleast 10 times as much moisture as bare and deforested land and twice as much as the land where grasses or plants, other than trees are predominantly grown.