The central government on Wednesday said it has stepped up efforts to control the spread of swarms of locust in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh, and will soon deploy drones to spray pesticides to avert the migratory pests.
About 21 districts in Rajasthan, 18 in Madhya Pradesh, two in Gujarat and one district in Punjab have undertaken locust control measures till now, said the Union Agriculture Ministry in a statement, adding the menace has been controlled in 47,308 hectare areas across the four states so far.
After damaging crops in Rajasthan and MP, swarms of locusts entered Uttar Pradesh's Jhansi district and could head towards Maharashtra's Ramtek city amid what is being described as the worst attack in 26 years.
"It is not a new problem and we had been facing it for a long time. This year, the locust attack is the worst in 26 years," said an official at the Faridabad-based Locust Warning Organisation (LWO), adding there is a coordinated effort to contain its spread. Locusts have earlier been confined to Rajasthan and Gujarat.
The official added that since the insects are not finding enough food to survive, they are moving to other areas aided by strong winds.
Indian Council of Agricultural Research Director General Trilochan Mohapatra said the insects have attacked about 40,000 hectares of land. But there is no impact on rabi crops like wheat, pulses and oilseeds as most of them are harvested by now.
"The focus now is to stop the outbreak prior to arrival of monsoon rainfall in June-July when locusts will mature and breed. If the infestation is not controlled, it will pose a threat to kharif crops," said Mohapatra.
Swarm makes its way to UP
An official of the UP government said a swarm of locusts had made its way to Jhansi district on Wednesday. The swarm is spread over an area of about one square kilometre. Other districts in the region are also on alert.
While locusts had struck the same district last week, authorities had said they had managed to eliminate half of that swarm with the help of locals.
The latest swarm was spotted in MP's Datia district and anticipating its arrival, the Jhansi administration had already deployed fire brigade vehicles loaded with pesticide and taken other measures.
Officials in Maharashtra said swarms that had entered Katol and Parseoni in Nagpur district over the last four days might now move towards Ramtek city. But it is difficult to predict their exact flying course, said an agriculture department official.
The swarms, stretching up to 17 km, had first entered farms in Katol and Wardha's Ashti taluka on Saturday and Sunday, damaging the orange crop and vegetable plantations. The locusts then moved towards Parseoni tehsil on Monday night.
"These swarms are moving towards Ramtek or Mouda (in Nagpur district). However, one cannot say for sure where the swarms of locusts will descend," said Ravi Bhosale, Divisional Joint Director in Agriculture Department."They might fly in the direction of Ramtek or might change the course, as they fly as per the flow of wind."
Punjab Agriculture Director Sawtantar Kumar Airi said an alert has been issued across the state and control rooms set up in each district and farmers asked to report any locust activity. Locusts were spotted in some villages in Fazilka and Muktsar districts in January but were effectively contained then.
Govt steps up efforts
The agriculture ministry on Wednesday said the government has placed an order for buying 60 spraying machines from UK-based company Micron and two firms have been finalised for supply of drones for aerial spraying of insecticides for effective control over tall trees and inaccessible areas.
"Usually the locust swarms enter the scheduled desert area of India through Pakistan for summer breeding in the month of June/July with the advent of monsoon. This year, however, incursions of locust hoppers and pink swarms have been reported much earlier because of presence of residual population of locust in Pakistan which they couldn't control last season," it said.
Incursions of locust hoppers have been reported since April 11 and that of pink immature adults since April 30 in bordering districts of Rajasthan and Punjab, which are being controlled, it said.
Pink immature adults fly high and cover long distances during day hours along with the westerly winds coming from the Pakistan side. Most of these pink immature adults settle on trees during night, and mostly fly during the day, it added.
Stating that control operations are in full swing currently, the government said so far locusts have been controlled in 47,308 hectare area in total 303 places in Rajasthan, Punjab, Gujarat and MP by Locust Control Officers in coordination with district administration and state agriculture department.
However, there are active swarms of "immature locust" in eight districts in Rajasthan (Barmer, Jodhpur, Nagaur, Bikaner, Ganganagar, Hanumangarh, Sikar and Jaipur) and seven MP districts (Satna, Gwalior, Seedhi, Rajgarh, Baitul, Devas, Agar Malwa), it said.
"The immature locust is very active and their mobility makes it difficult to control the swarm at one location and it takes 4 to 5 days of control at different locations to control a particular locust swarm," it said, adding control operations are being undertaken in morning hours on a daily basis.
Currently 89 fire brigades for pesticide spray, 120 survey vehicles, 47 control vehicles with spray equipment and 810 tractor mounted sprayers have been deployed for effective locust control, as per requirement on different days.
The ministry said it has received permission from Civil Aviation Ministry for use of drones for locust control. "Two firms have been finalised through tender for use of drones for spray of pesticides for locust control," it added.
(With inputs from PTI)
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