Drones used to kill locusts in Jaipur

nJAIPUR: A drone was used to spray pesticide and kill locusts in Jaipur district on the weekend after the voracious, crop-munching pests settled on a hilly road that was inaccessible to tractormounted sprayers, officials said on Sunday.

The drone was pressed into service on Saturday night and Sunday morning to eliminate the swarms of pests in the Viratnagar area.“we got information about a 3km-by-1km swarm in three villages of Viratnagar on Saturday. We surveyed the area and found the pest present on 230 hectares, but the area was difficult to access so we decided to use the drone,” said BR Kadwa, deputy director of the Rajasthan agriculture department, in Jaipur.

It’s the second time in a week that a drone had been deployed to spray pesticide on locust swarms in Jaipur district. A drone sent by the central government for locust control operations was used on swarms of the insect in Samode, about 40km north-west of Jaipur, on the night of May 26. Heavy rain that continued until 10.30 pm , in addition to the difficult terrain, impeded Saturday night’s operation. “We could launch the operation only around midnight,” he added. “The locust swarms could be controlled only in 105 hectare; teams couldn’t reach the remaining areas. We managed to kill only half the swarm,” he said.