Swarms of locusts enter Jaipur residential areas

Agencies

New Delhi: Swarms of locusts entered some residential areas of Jaipur on Monday, presenting the local people with an unusual sight. In Jaipur's Murlipura and Vidhyadhar Nagar areas, people beat 'thalis' at the locusts that had settled on walls and trees, hoping to make them move on.

Locusts normally affect districts in western Rajasthan but this time the swarms have travelled as far as Jaipur city. The swarms later headed towards Dausa district. Locust swarms have been spotted in 17 districts of Uttar Pradesh, 12 districts in Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan.

 “The menace of locust has spread to 18 districts of Rajasthan and they are rapidly travelling in search of food,” Om Prakash, the commissioner of state agriculture department said He said the swarms were in Nagaur and reached Jaipur and nearby areas on Sunday. They were seen in residential areas of the city on Monday and then they moved towards Dausa, Prakash said.

 “There is no standing crop on ground so they are staying on large trees and moving fast. Locust control teams conducted operations by sprinkling pesticide in Jaipur last night and today remaining swarms have moved towards Dausa,” he said. Centre's Locust Warning Organisation in Jodhpur and the state agriculture department are working in coordination to handle the locust attack issue.

The swarms are travelling farther and damaging trees as there are no standing crops for them to feed on, an official said.

The latest such attack occurred on April 11 when the swarms entered from Pakistan and damaged cotton crops in Ganganagar to some extent. The swarms later travelled to various other districts and have now crossed Jaipur.

The director of agriculture department informed that 200 teams are working in the field to monitor the movement of locusts and nearly 800 tractor-mounted sprayers are being used. He said, fire department is also involved in the operations against the locusts. Prakash said the swarms have covered almost 54,000 hectare area in the state this time and containment operations were conducted in 40,000 hectare area.

The insects are known to originate in Arabian Peninsula, and invade India via Rajasthan-Pakistan border, just before the onset of the seasonal monsoon. They fly throughout the day, covering a maximum distance of up to about 150 km/day and settle down on trees after sunset where they remain throughout the night. They breed rapidly, which makes it difficult to control them. According to IMD scientists, their movement is largely aided by the wind-flow. "The wind around this time is favourable for them and also the sandy soil in Rajasthan, which is conducive for laying eggs," said senior scientist from IMD.