PAK TO SET UP CONTROL CELL FOR LOCUSTS

Islamabad, May 29: The Pakistan government will set up a national body to combat the locust swarms across the country as the insects have destroyed crops and vegetation on vast tracts of lands in 60 out of total 135 districts, a senior minister has said.

Speaking to reporters here, Information Minister Shibli Faraz said the efforts to control locusts were going on under a national strategy as there was a dire need to deal with it. “The proposed National Locust Control Cell was part of the national locust control policy. We fear that there would be a great threat of locust swarms in July this year. The government is preparing for it,” Faraz said on Thursday.

Locusts have destroyed crops and vegetation on vast tracts of lands in 60 out of total 135 districts of the country. Faraz said nine planes and helicopters were taking part in the campaign to spray pesticides and kill the swarms.

The government has set up a helpline so that farmers could inform the authorities to take timely action against the deadly locust attacks. In Pakistan, hopper bands of the Schistocerca gregaria, commonly known as the desert locust, are believed to have entered into the southwestern Balochistan province, from neighboring Iran.