Science vs Suspicion: Decoding India’s Rising Interest in the 'Chemtrails' Panic
Social media conspiracy theories seem to show interest in the concept of 'chemtrails' and its perceived harms.
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When Delhi saw windy weather, sudden rains, and thunderstorms in March, some people took cover under an umbrella or raincoat, while some others took out their brand new 'tinfoil hats' and started posting videos and posts on the internet.
We’re talking about the people who asked – “Is this rain real or artificial?” “Did this happen because of Bill Gates?” “This is because of chemtrails!”
People are question Gates' involvement in India's weather.
(Source: X/Screenshot)
What Are ‘Chemtrails’?
To understand this, we must understand what contrails are.
Contrails, is a shortened word for condensation trails. NASA says they are essentially a type of “technically manmade” cloud formed when water vapour released by aircrafts condenses around dust particles in the atmosphere, causing the vapour to freeze.
‘Chemtrails’ are believed to be deliberately sprayed chemicals, assumed to have been dispersed by governments, global elites, or organisations, for malicious or nefarious reasons.
The alleged reasons are a wide variety. Some people claim that chemicals are sprayed to harm people's health by contaminating air, water, and/or soil. Others believe that they are dispersed to "modify" the weather.
One might wonder why. Well, here’s a post by content creator ‘geowithayush’, which delves into the ‘chemtrails’ conspiracy theory.
While most of us see those white streaks behind planes and think of simple condensation, a growing number of Indians on social media, and beyond, are convinced they are actually chemical cocktails being sprayed to manipulate the weather.
This isn't a small conspiracy theory discussed among a niche group of people, but a full-blown narrative where Gates is seen as a 'weather god' trying to run experiments on the Global South.
Following bizarre instances, i.e, when the northern parts of India caught an unexpected chill, and the South saw sudden, heavy hail, viral posts claimed Gates was testing "sun-blocking" tech to deliberately ruin Indian crops and Indians' health.
The logic being shared is that by messing with the monsoon, these globalists can force India to ditch traditional farming for lab-grown meat or patented seeds.
It’s a peculiar mix of genuine anxiety over food security and outlandish science-fiction.
What’s really fueling the fire are those clickbait YouTube videos and "forwarded as received" messages that take bits of real science – like the Harvard SCoPEx project – and twist them into a horror story.
This user spoke about SCoPEx and Gates.
(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)
Even though credible news organisations and the scientific community have repeatedly pointed out that SCoPEx was largely a small-scale research idea and never involved spraying chemicals over India, the narrative has already taken deep root.
Now, every time there’s a dusty sky in Mumbai or an unseasonal downpour in Delhi, you’ll find people talking about Gates "controlling our clouds." It’s a classic case of real-world scientific curiosity being hijacked by a conspiracy that refuses to die down.
This isn't just a fringe Western import anymore; it’s become a niche Indian obsession. The theory suggests that these trails aren't just frozen water vapor but are actually secret chemical cocktails being sprayed by governments or elites to control everything from our health to our very own monsoon patterns.
What makes this so potent in 2026 is how it has successfully hijacked the very real, very high-stakes scientific debate around solar geoengineering.
What Is That?
Solar geoengineering, specifically Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI), is a legitimate, though controversial, field of climate science aimed at reflecting sunlight back into space to cool the planet. By injecting particles like sulfate or calcium carbonate into the upper atmosphere, scientists hope to create a "sunshade" for Earth.
There are movements and organised groups of people backing the ‘chemtrails’ and ‘blocking-the-sun’ theories, one of which identifies itself as ‘GeoEngineering Watch’. This group takes special care in avoiding the term ‘chemtrails’ to raise concerns about the issue, noting that chemtrailing is “the publics term for CLASSIFIED ONGOING artificial modification (sic)” of the planet’s weather.
It emphasises that 'chemtrailing' is a public term.
(Source: GeoEngineeringWatch/Screenshot)
In 2021, the group released a full-length documentary about chemtrails and sun blocking, titled ‘The Dimming’, which has also found its place in the posts shared in India.
The widespread nature of this theory and the narratives it shares has even caused people to start online petitions to get the governments “to stop chemtrail spraying.”
The petition has not atrracted significant attention.
(Source: Change.org/Screenshot)
What Kind of Posts Have We Seen?
Primarily, the social media chatter we came across discussed,
Changing skies, where people spoke about how the skies appeared more dull or more overcast.
Harmful chemicals are being sprayed in the stratosphere to harm people, crops, or water.
Elites, specifically Bill Gates, blocking the sun.
Unseasonal rains as part of climate control projects, to disrupt India’s agrarian economy.
‘Big pharma’ putting out ‘chemtrails’ to sell supplements and cures.
These posts are not restricted to the English language. We came across posts in Hindi which spoke about artificial rains and chemtrails ruining crops, some in Punjabi talking about fake clouds and artificial rains, posts in Tamil linking a recent hailstorm in parts of the state to Gates and chemtrails.
This Hindi video, for instance, calls out an “Illuminati government” for spraying chemicals in the air to sell vaccines.
Fear Mongering Leads To Unscientific Claims, Feeds Into Paranoia
Instead of discussing the complex risks of global warming or ozone depletion — which are real scientific concerns — the social media chatter often devolves into warnings about "toxic rain" and secret “weather control” projects.
It’s a classic case of a high-tech scientific concept being filtered through a lens of deep-seated suspicion, turning a complex climate solution into a scary conspiracy.
The mechanism of the delivery system.
(Soure:SCoPEx/Screenshot)
Proposing to test it in Sweden in 2021, the Keutsch Group at the heart of the project, stated that they planned to release between 100 grams and two kilograms of calcium carbonate in the stratosphere to test the delivery mechanism.
In 2019, they also formed an Advisory Committee which met often until 2023 to decide on the importance of the project and the risks associated with it.
After years of opposition over safety and environmental concerns, the institute announced that the project had been terminated without ever having conducted a field test in 2024.
The scientific community has persistently tried to address and find ways to control global warming and issues related to climate change.
The research is real, the efforts are ongoing. Scientists have genuinely, scientifically, and analytically looked at injecting aerosols into the stratosphere to deflect solar radiation for a few years now,
At the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), 14 teams have been studying how solar radiation management could actually mess with our monsoon cycles.
Their stance is quite clear that while we need to understand the science, we cannot support any deployment without knowing exactly how it will impact India.
On their website, they announced their project about studying the “potential local impacts” of solar radiation management (SRM) on Indian monsoons. IISc is working with scientists in both the Global North and South to model and analyse these studies.
Six proposed methods to apply solar radiation modification.
(Source; IISc/Screenshot)
Growing Interest in Chemtrails
Over a decade ago in 2014, researcher Rose Cairns published her study about the narratives surrounding chemtrails, which was titled, “Climates of suspicion: ‘chemtrail’ conspiracy narratives and the international politics of geoengineering”.
Even in 2014, Cairns said that the narrative had “received very little attention in academic work,” and that her paper builds on work which highlighted “the instability of the distinction between ‘paranoid’ and ‘normal’ views, and examines the chemtrail conspiracy narrative as a discourse rather than a pathology (either psychological or sociological).”
Tracing one of the oldest mentions of the ‘chemtrails’ conspiracy narrative back to an article published in 1999, Cairns observed that over the years, the theory about governments deliberately spraying chemicals in the stratosphere ‘to make people sick’ has persisted.
A 1999 article about chemtrails.
(Source: Archive.org/Screenshot)
Greek researcher Philemon Bantimaroudis called it a “group-mediated delusion theory,” defining it as “ a jointly held unverifiable view or belief, which a group enforces and sustains through public discussions and persuasion in social media community environments,” in a 2015 case study about the growth of the conspiracy narrative.
He noted that over a 11.5 year-long period between January 2004 and June 2015, people had been searching for ‘chemtrails’, according to Google Trends. Interest in the theory peaked in April 2014.
The graph shows interest in the topic between 2004 and 2015.
(Source: Academica.edu/Screenshot)
As of March 2026, we were able to corroborate that interest in the topic had peaked in 2016 in a look at worldwide search trends.
Worldwide interest in 'chemtrails' as on 26 March.
(Source: Google Trends/Screenshot)
In India, the topic has attracted comparatively less interest, with searches showing highest interest in 2004, 2009, and a steady growth since March 2024.
Indians looking at 'chemtrails' over a decade as on 26 March 2026.
(Source: Google Trends/Screenshot)
However, for the average Indian on WhatsApp or X, the line between "saving the planet" and "weaponising the weather" has blurred in this narrative.
Bill Gates has become the ultimate villain in this narrative because of his historical funding of projects like SCoPEx. Even though that particular project was shelved years ago, the "Gates-is-blocking-the-sun" narrative has stuck.
The theory gets discussed in closed networks such as WhatsApp, as well.
(Source: WhatsApp/Screenshot)
There is a genuine fear that solar geoengineering is a form of "climate colonialism" where the Global North experiments with the atmosphere, potentially messing with the delicate Indian monsoon that our entire economy, especially its backbone, which is the agrarian economy, depends on.
This legitimate anxiety over food security and sovereignty provides a fertile ground for the wilder chemtrail myths to flourish.
Wait, But What is Behind the Delhi Rains in March?
After a few days of high heat, Delhiites breathed a sigh of relief when temperatures dropped on 18 and 19 March.
This abrupt chilly weather was triggered by a western disturbance which "intensified rapidly over northwest India on 18 March," Down To Earth noted.
A western disturbance is an "extra tropical storm" which originate over the Caspian and Mediterranean seas, bringing winter rains to northwest India, it added, with The Print mentioning that the disturbance was "intensified by an induced cyclonic circulation that formed over Haryana."
These weather events, in addition to moisture-heavy winds from the Arabian Sea, led to the formation of what is known as a meteorological trough -- an elongated area of low atmospheric pressure -- which draws in clouds, causing rains and cooler temperatures.
When all these events came together, the intensity of rains increased and there was a noticeable drop in temperature over NCR.
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) told the people of Maharashtra's Pune to expect thunderstorms and rainfall for a few days around 30 March.
However, yet another western disturbance gave parts of the city heavy hailstorms on 30 March, surprising locals, as seen in this report by Pune Times Mirror.