Locust Swarms Head Towards Maharashtra's Gondia, About 90,000 Hectares Hit in 20 Rajasthan Districts

About 90,000 hectares in 20 districts of Rajasthan have been affected due to the locust attack, an official said Thursday.

Swarms of locust have moved from Sri Ganganagar, Nagaur, Jaipur, Dausa, Karauli and Swai Madhopur towards other areas in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh after the authorities conducted operations to tackle them.

Crop over 4,000 hectares in Sri Ganganagar and 100 hectares in Nagaur have been destroyed.

Around 90,000 hectares in 20 districts have been affected in the state due to the locust attack, said Om Prakash, Commissioner of the Agriculture Department.

He said the department carried out locust control operations on 67,000 hectares.

Swarms of locust can travel up to 150 km a day with a speed of 15-20 km per hour and since there is no standing crop in the fields, they are targeting trees and other available vegetation, the official said.

He said the non-availability of standing crops is the reason behind their movement from Pakistan to India.

Talking about the locust control operations, he said 800 tractors with mounted sprayers are being used to neutralise locusts.

About 200 teams are involved in daily survey and farmers are being given free pesticides, he said.

Swarms of locust had recently entered some residential areas of Jaipur and settled on trees and walls. After a few hours, the insects moved towards Dausa.

Swarms of locusts have moved towards Maharashtra's Gondia district after attacking crops in neighbouring Bhandara, an official said on Thursday.

Authorities in Gondia were alerted while pesticides were sprayed on crops and trees at a village in Bhandara which was affected by the pests, he said.

An agriculture team rushed to Bhandara in the early hours of Thursday and sprayed pesticides with two fire tenders on trees in one-km radius in Temani village of the district, divisional joint director of agriculture Ravi Bhosle told PTI.

"When the team reached the area in the early hours, pests were seen on mango, teak, moha, jambhul, ber and other trees. Pesticides were sprayed and by morning, a large number the crop-eating pests fell from trees and died," he said.

"Mango trees were the most affected. The pests ate leaves but fruits were not damaged. Also, no damage was reported in the paddy fields," he said.

The locust swarms were now heading eastwards, in the direction of wind, towards Tiroda tehsil in neighbouring Gondia district, the official said.

Field machinery in Gondia has been alerted about the movement of the insects, he said.

In the last few months, locust attacks have been reported from many parts of the country, including Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra.