Year after locust attack, experts monitoring hotbeds in Africa

BATHINDA : A year after swarms of locusts invaded parts of Punjab and Haryana besides Rajasthan and Delhi, causing widespread damage to crops, the central government authorities have begun monitoring the pest’s breeding hotbeds in the sub-Saharan desert region and Asian countries.

Experts say nearly half a billion population of the desert locust had invaded India from Pakistan from October 2019 onwards.

Climatic conditions to determine threat of invasion

KL Gurjar, the deputy director of the Locust Warning Organisation (LWO), a subsidiary of the central ministry, is analysing movement of swarms of locusts in coordination with the Food and Agriculture Organisation. He says the climatic conditions in the African and Arabian peninsulas will determine the threat of locust invasion this year.

“We are keeping our fingers crossed though the country is fully prepared for another locust invasion.,” said Gurjar, the national coordinator on mitigating locust attacks.

It was after about three decades that India experienced a locust attack in 2019-20.

Surge in greenery in Rajasthan attracts locusts

Experts say locusts move with the wind and follow a definite cycle from the Sahara desert in North Africa, into East Africa – Ethiopia, Kenya, Eritrea and parts of Chad. They then move to the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. When they finish the food there, they move to Pakistan and India.

A former vice-chancellor of Himachal Pradesh-based Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Hari Chand Sharma, attributes exceptional rains in the last season and upgraded irrigation in Rajasthan for unusual locust invasion.

“With an increase in irrigation infrastructure, several parts of Rajasthan have seen a surge in greenery, attracting locusts for food,” said Sharma, an entomologist.

According to field analysis of Feb 9, swarms persist in East African regions other areas, including Afghanistan and Pakistan, are calm KL GURJAR, deputy director, Locust Warning Organisation

No locust colony left in country since August 27

The LWO authorities say no locust colony was left in the country last year. “The desert locusts normally live and breed in semi-arid regions and numerous egg colonies were reported in parts of Rajasthan. Our teams ensured tht entire egg colonies were wiped out by August 27,” Gurjar added.