Another threat

Amid Covid-19 crisis, there is another threat that India is dealing with — locust attack that can destroy food crops. Currently, a thick cloud of locusts is spread over Maharashtra covering an area of a few kilometres from Ramtek to the Madhya Pradesh borders and it is moving eastwards towards Telangana. As many as 23 swarms of locusts had entered India from Pakistan and experts said they were unlikely to move out before July-end. In view of this, many task forces, involving senior IAS officers, have been set up by Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhara Rao to handle the possible attack. The Telangana government has deployed 47 ground teams to spray chemicals and take other measures to curb the menace. The government has to make sure the threat is eliminated before the onset of the Kharif season in the last week of July.