VELLORE: Chancellor G Viswanathan of VIT University has offered to venture into cloud-seeding technology to induce additional rain in Vellore district, if the state government was willing to extend support.
His offer was made while inaugurating a five-day training programme for executive officers of government departments titled ‘Sustainable Development and Management of Ground Water Resources’ organised by Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) at the university campus on Monday.
Vishwanathan expressed concern over the deteriorating ground water situation in the district. Cloud-seeding technology can help in getting additional rainfall, he said, adding that the university was willing to work with government agencies in this regard. The chancellor said,“Even though we are blessed with good rains, perennial river systems, we are not able to manage water. In many parts of the country, the ground water table had gone down to 4 metres in the past 6 to 7 years’ he pointed out.
The groundwater exploitation has been found to be around 40 percent in Tamilnadu and out of the 365 blocks in Tamil Nadu, 138 have been categorized as over exploited, 37 critical and 105 semi-critically exploited. The government of India should take control of all rivers for better resource-sharing otherwise ‘we are heading for a huge water crisis in the future’, he added.
Dr E Sampath Kumar, director (South Eastern Coastal Region) of CGWB pointed out that the focus of the training programme will be on groundwater resource management.
Dr G P Ganapthy, Associate professor at VIT said, scientists and experts from CGWB and VIT would be conducting the training on the applications of technical and management tools such as remote sensing.