High alert sounded in south, southwest Delhi

NEWDELHI: Delhi’s environment minister Gopal Rai on Saturday issued a high alert in south and southwest districts of the city because of a potential locust attack threat after a small portion of a locust swarm moving towards Palwal in Haryana entered the Asola Bhatti area.

Delhi’s agriculture department issued advisories to all district magistrates, sub-divisional magistrates, the forest department and municipal corporations to prepare for locust swarms.

After scattered groups of locusts entered Delhi’s border areas including Aya Nagar and Mehrauli, Rai called an emergency meeting at noon on Saturday to discuss the locust threat.

The forest department was directed to take measures such as creating high-decibel noise through beating of drums or loud music to scare away the locusts. All district magistrates were asked to remain in touch with the fire department to make arrangements for chemical spraying to save vegetation from the pests.

“The DMs have also been asked to deploy adequate staff to make all possible arrangements like Munadi in the villages to guide the residents to distract the locals by making high decibel sound through banging of utensils, beating drums, playing DJs or burning of neem leaves,” the advisory said.

Residents of some parts of south Delhi were taken aback when they saw the skyline turning brown around noon.

Sanat Swain, a mechanical engineer who was driving to his workplace in Gurugram, saw a large number of locusts near the Indian Institute of Technology flyover. “I was driving and I couldn’t believe what was happening. The sky above me had turned dark suddenly,” he said.

The swarm, which had originally started from Pakistan, came via Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan and Rewari in Haryana and reached Gurugram around noon. Before heading towards Palwal, parts of the swarm crossed several stretches of south Delhi.

According to the LWO, during locust control operations in Rajasthan, this particular swarm survived the insecticides sprayed on them so they started moving from there and headed towards Gururgam with the wind direction being westerly.

On Saturday afternoon, the swarm reached Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh and a few scattered groups remained in Delhi. LWO’S seven ground control vehicles were headed towards Bulandshahr where control operations are likely to take place.

“These vehicles are mounted with sprayers. Drones and tractors or fire brigades will also be used. We will spray Malathion 96, Lambda Cyhalothrin and Chlorpyrifos to control the swarm at night in UP,” said KL Gurjar, deputy director, LWO.

FOREST DEPARTMENT DIRECTED TO TAKE

MEASURES SUCH AS CREATING HIGH-DECIBEL NOISE THROUGH BEATING OF DRUMS OR LOUD MUSIC TO SCARE AWAY THE LOCUSTS