India, Oct. 29 -- Two Cessna aircraft fitted with salt-based and silver iodide flares took off on Tuesday, few hours apart - one from Kanpur, another from Meerut - to induce artificial rains in Delhi.

The aircraft, loaded with eight flares each, hovered over the northwest areas of the capital to conduct cloud seeding, in a first-of-its-kind measure to combat deteriorating air quality levels in the city.

The trials, however, failed to yield rainfall, barring minimal precipitation in Noida and Greater Noida. More such trials are planned in the coming days to induce artificial rain.

Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said two cloud seeding trials were conducted in collaboration with IIT-Kanpur, adding that more such exercise...