A swarm of crop-eating locusts has crossed the border State of Rajasthan to reach Central India with thousands of the harvest flies swooping down on vast fields of moong dal in Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s Budhni constituency. It is said to be the biggest locust attack in the region in past three decades and is threatening to destroy crops worth Rs 8,000 crore. Locusts’ attack has also been reported from Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh.

While an expert team from Rajasthan is to visit MP to tackle the pest attack, in Jhansi the fire brigade team has been kept in readiness to spray disinfectant in the affected area. These locusts come to India from Iran passing through Pakistan. This is the biggest locust attack in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh in last 27 years and is likely to grow till monsoon season. The locusts entered through Neemuch district in the state and travelled to parts of Malwa Nimar to reach close to Bhopal.

In UP, as many as 17 districts including Agra, Jhansi, Aligarh, Mathura, Bulandshahr, Hathras, Etah, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Etawah, Farrukhabad, Auraiya, Jalaun, Kanpur, Mahoba, Hamirpur and Lalitpur are affected from locusts that reached through Dausa, Rajasthan. Over the 250 tractors/ trolly have been keep in ready with chemicals.

According to officials of agriculture ministry, locust swarms have entered Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, and Madhya Pradesh a month in advance and pose a major threat to standing crops and vegetables. This is the fourth attack since December last year. Locust swarms enter the desert areas of India via Pakistan for breeding in the summer of June-July, but this time Locust Hoppers as well as Pink Adult Swarms had entered border districts of Rajasthan and Punjab in April itself.  Officials said that India has taken up the matter with Pakistan as well as Iran, another country affected by the locust attack, and offered pesticide support to both countries.

The Ministry of Environment  also warned of locust attacks in Punjab, Haryana, UP an MP in the coming weeks.

In MP, four teams of the Central Government, besides teams of state agricultural development, are fighting the locusts by using chemical sprays with the help of tractors and fire-brigade vehicles. The Locusts Warning Organisation of the agriculture ministry has issued an advisory to the farmers in villages of the affected districts to keep continuous vigil over the desert locusts. They have been asked to keep the insects at bay by using loud sounds through drums, banging of utensils and shouting.

In UP, the agriculture department has directed fire brigade to keep its vehicle ready with chemicals following a sudden movement by a swarm of locusts. As  Deputy Director Agriculture Kamal Katiyar said the swarm of locusts, which is moving, is small in size.

To tackle the locusts, the ministry has ordered spraying machines from United Kingdom to tackle locust swarms and over 2500 tractors and trollies are engaged in spraying chemicals. Besides, drones are being used to keep an eye over locust swarms in Rajasthan, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. The officials of agriculture departments of these States are worried a lot as summer crops sowing are going on these days and there are possibilities that if they are not controlled, they could damages to kharif crops in these States.

In its latest update, the Locusts warning section of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), said locusts’ breeding was continuing in southern Iran and south-west Pakistan, where control operations are in progress against hopper groups and bands.

“As vegetation dries out, more groups and swarms will form and move from these areas to the summer breeding areas along both sides of the Indo-Pakistan border in several waves from now until at least early July. Good rains are predicted during the first half of June along the Indo-Pakistan border [and] that would allow egg-laying to occur. This should reduce the further eastward movement of swarms that have already arrived in Rajasthan, India.”