AMN / NEW DELHI
India’s Ministry of Agriculture has said that the locust control operation is on in full swing mainly in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.
It is being done with the cooperation and coordination of the State Agricultural Departments, Local Administration and Border Security Force. 62 spray equipments are being used by Locust Circle Offices while 200 employees of Locust Warning Organization -LWO are deployed for conducting survey and control work. Control rooms have been established in all 10 Locust Circle Offices and also at LWO, Jodhpur.
It said, two locust swarms from Indo-Pak border areas are reported, one each in Bikaner and Sriganganagar district. Control operation is going on against these swarms
The Ministry said, till the 21st of this month, locust control has been undertaken in over one lakh 14 thousand hectare area in Rajasthan, Punjab, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. It said, for effective control of locusts in inaccessible areas and on the tops of tall trees, use of drones is being explored.
At present, swarms of immature pink locusts with intermittent population of maturing yellow adults are active in Jaisalmer, Barmer, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Sri Ganganagar, Jaipur, Nagaur, and Ajmer districts of Rajasthan, Panna district of Madhya Pradesh and Lalitpur district of Uttar Pradesh, said the statement.
Everyday, locust control operations are carried out in the morning hours with the help of vehicle-mounted sprayers, tractors and fire tender vehicles. The control operations are conducted with the cooperation and in coordination with the concerned officials of the district administration and the state agriculture department.
So far, the Rajasthan government has deployed a total of 2,142 tractors and 46 fire brigade vehicles, Madhya Pradesh a total of 83 tractors and 47 fire brigade vehicles, Uttar Pradesh 4 tractors and 16 fire brigade vehicles, Punjab 50 tractors and 6 fire brigade vehicles and Gujarat deployed 38 tractors for locust control.
