Locust menace: Agri Min issues advisory to all states; Odisha, Bihar on alert, relief for Delhi, Haryana
Mohit Sharma | Principal Correspondent
Agriculture ministry on Friday issued an advisory to all states on growing threat of locusts. However, northern states of Haryana, Delhi, parts of Punjab and eastern UP are likely to remain untouched.
Desert locusts are damaging crops across India. | Photo Credit: ANI
Key Highlights
- Secretary, Agriculture, cooperation and farmer welfare speaks to principal secretary of all states and UTs, issues advisory.
- Sources say locust swarms likely to give Delhi a miss. Alert now sounded in Bihar and Odisha.
- Over 1000 vehicles, including fire tenders and tractors fitted with spraying technology. Drones and helicopters to be used now to tackle the menace.
New Delhi: The swarms of locust which have already laid havoc in four states and more than 20 districts, are unlikely to move further north towards Delhi, Haryana, or Parts of Punjab and Eastern Uttar Pradesh, according to officials in Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare. Although alarms have now been sounded and preparations are now being made to tackle these pests in Bihar and Odisha.
Meanwhile, Secretary Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare, Sanjay Agarwal held a meeting with Principal Secretary (Agriculture) of all the states and UTs and issued an advisory.
According to the official in the ministry of agriculture, while the locusts seem to have deviated from their path which would have led the North Indian states of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Eastern Uttar Pradesh, it is likely that these flying crop-damaging pests may reach upto Bihar and Odisha.
The Indian authorities are hopeful of tackling the situation before it leads to a situation which results in damage to crops on a national scale.
As per the ministry data, almost 1000 vehicles have been deployed to terminate the crop threatening pests, which include tractors and fire tenders. The ministry officials claim that they have already cleared the 53,000 hectares of area.
The strong incursion wave of the locusts have taken entire South-East Asia with a surprise, with countries like Bangladesh looking upto India to control these crop threatening pests.
The last time locusts managed to cross India was in 1950, however, since then while there have been periodic incursions into India, we have not faced such a severe wave of swarms since 1993.
Meanwhile, the officials say that drones will be used to spray pesticides on tall trees and inaccessible places for effective control of locusts, while plans are afoot to deploy helicopters for aerial spray.
Furthermore, 11 Regional Control Rooms have been established and special contingents have been deployed along with additional manpower to check the spread of locusts.
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