With India battling the worst desert locust attack outbreak in three decades, Jharkhand Government's Agriculture Department is gearing up to fight against the attack, which heavily destroyed crops in various states of the Country.
Already the entire country is grappling with the global pandemic COVID 19, the Locust attacked in several states of the northern part of the Country and the various states issued advisories to prevent it to spread. In order to provide safety blankets to farmers of the Jharkhand, the State's Agriculture Department issued alert in the State to drive away the insect from the State.
Director Agriculture Department, Chavi Ranjan said the Department is assessing its resources to combat the menace as a single case has not been reported so far regarding invasion of the insect in the State. "We are arranging vehicles to spray pesticide and insecticide to thwart the effort of the Locust attack in the State. We are talking to several vehicle owners in private sectors in this regard and at the same time we are arranging vehicles from the State Government also," he added. The Department has chalked out strategy to combat the menace, in which it issued alert at State level, District Level and Block level, said Ranjan. He added that an awareness drive will also be organised among farmers about the insect.
Notably the crop destroying insect now spread to states like Punjab, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujrat after arriving in Rajsthan from neighboring country Pakistan. Authorities in Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka too sounded alerts on Thursday to the possibility of locusts entering their territories even as UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation warned that the insects could reach as far east as Bihar and Odisha in the coming week.
Birsa Agriculture University (BAU) Director Extension Education, RS Kureel said that there aerial spray of insecticide is needed to completely drive away the swarms of Locust amid their worst invasion of the years. It comes in every 20 to 30 years and there is no permanent plan to control it, only nodal agencies deployed when it comes to India, he added.
"It can't be tackled by single State Government. It can be tackle with joint effort of the Central Government and various state governments to drive to the insect from the Country before advent of Kharif season," said Kureel.
