Center issued warning to 16 states regarding locusts, India is buying new equipment

Locusts have attacked many states of India from Pakistan through Rajasthan. This locust has destroyed crops in Punjab, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. According to the United Nations warning, swarm of desert locusts is a serious threat to the country's agriculture this year. It has caused significant damage to vegetation and crops in Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. After this, the Center has issued a warning to 16 states.

According to the Information Service Bulletin issued by the Food and Agriculture Organization's Desert Locusts, locusts can fly up to 150 kilometers in a day and a swarm of one square kilometer can eat as much as 35,000 people a day. The government has prepared a fleet of Air Force helicopters to set up 11 new monitoring stations for pesticide spraying and is importing new equipment to deal with them.

Locust swarms in Bhandara, Gondia, Nagpur and Amravati districts of Maharashtra's Vidarbha region have damaged oranges, mango orchards and paddy fields. Maharashtra joint director (agriculture) Ravi Bhonsle said a team was sent to Bhandara on Thursday to spray pesticides in the affected areas. He said, "Timely action has prevented major damage to crops."

A swarm of locusts entered Ghoraval in Madhya Pradesh's Sonbhadra from Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday afternoon and damaged crops in several villages of the district. District Agriculture Officer Piyush Rai said, 'The loss was not much as most of the vegetables and other crops had been harvested.' Farmers in Agra on Thursday breathed a sigh of relief when the locusts moved from Dausa in Rajasthan to Bhanugarh in Rajasthan. .

Suva Lal Jat, joint director of the Plant Protection Division, said the locality spread over 73,000 hectares in Rajasthan has controlled the locust threat. He said that 95,000 hectares of 24 districts of the state have been affected. Barmer, Jodhpur, Ganganagar, Dausa, Bikaner and Hanumangarh are badly affected. Authorities have stepped up vigil in Punjab, Haryana and Uttarakhand to counter a potential locust attack.

Punjab is highly sensitive as locusts were seen in Hanumangarh district of Rajasthan for the third day on Thursday. Punjab Agriculture Secretary KS Pannu told the officials that the districts of Fazilka, Bathinda and Muktsar which are bordering Rajasthan are equipped with sufficient reserves of pesticides to combat locust attack.

The Haryana and Uttarakhand governments have set up district control rooms to coordinate locust control operations. Officials in these states said drones have been purchased to spray chemicals and firefighters and trackers with chemicals have been put on standby for pest control operations. Bidar farmers in Karnataka are also worried because locusts from western Maharashtra may come here. However, state agriculture minister BC Patil said that the wind seems that the locusts would not come to Karnataka. Hence farmers need not be afraid.

The Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar reviewed in Delhi on Thursday. In a statement, Tomar's office said the government was taking the attack very seriously as it could damage the kharif season starting next month. India is buying new equipment to combat locusts. The Minister of Agriculture has approved the import of 60 sprayers from the UK Micron Group, a manufacturer of spraying equipment. Choppers have also been kept ready.