Copters, new gear to fight locust invasion
NEW DELHI: Swarms of desert locusts have reached new locations, chomping through vegetation and crops across farmlands in Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, leading the Centre to issue a locust warning to 16 states.
The government has readied a fleet of air force helicopters for spraying pesticides, set up 11 new monitoring stations, and is importing new equipment to fight the invasion.
Locusts have damaged orange, mango orchards and paddy fields in Bhandara, Gondia, Nagpur and Amravati districts of Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region. Maharashtra’s joint director (agriculture) Ravi Bhonsale said a team was rushed to Bhandara to spray pesticides in the affected areas. “Timely action averted any major loss to crops,” he said.
A locust swarm entered Ghorawal in Uttar Pradesh’s Sonbhadra from Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday and damaged crops in the district , which borders Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh. “The damage was not much as most of the vegetables and other crops have been harvested,” said district agriculture officer Piyush Rai.
Farmers in Agra heaved a sigh of relief on Thursday as locusts from Dausa in Rajasthan moved towards Bhangarh in Rajasthan. “Three locust swarms have moved away from Agra and the one nearest moved towards Madhya Pradesh due to the wind flow,” said district plant protection officer Ram Pravesh Verma.
Plant protection division joint director Suwa Lal Jat said the locust threat has been controlled in an area spread over 73,000 hectares in Rajasthan. He added 95,000 hectares was earlier affected across 24 districts in the state. “... Barmer, Jodhpur, Ganganagar, Dausa, Bikaner and Hanumangarh are badly affected,” he said. Jat said a swarm was present between Jaipur and Dausa and may either settle in Alwar or Dausa. Alwar is 100 km from Delhi.
Officials have increased the vigil to counter a possible locust attack in Punjab, Haryana and Uttarakhand. Punjab is highly vulnerable as swarms of locusts were seen in Rajasthan’s Hanumanagrh district for a third day on Thursday. Punjab agriculture secretary KS Pannu said authorities in Fazilka, Bathinda and Muktsar districts that border Rajasthan have been equipped with pesticides to deal with the attack.
Haryana and Uttarakhand have set up district control rooms to coordinate locust control operations. Officials said drones have been procured to spray chemicals and fire tenders and trackers with chemicals were on standby
India is in the process of importing new equipment to deal fight the infestation. The agriculture minister has approved the import of 60 sprayers from the UK. The ministry also floated bids for drones for aerial spraying of insecticides over trees. jHelicopters are being readied for deployment, an official said.