Already crippled by a dwindling economy besieged by the coronavirus pandemic, millions of swarming locusts ravaging their crops is the worst nightmare farmers in North India could have possibly had. But it has turned out to be true.
Farmers in Rajasthan, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra are in the midst of the worst locust attack in the last 27 years.
The locusts, which arrived late last year into Rajasthan from Pakistan, have affected thousands of farmers in several states in northern and central India.
Authorities in Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka too sounded alerts Thursday to the possibility of locusts entering their territories while United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned that the pests could reach as far east as Bihar and Odisha in the coming weeks.
What is locust attack
India is battling the worst desert locust outbreak in recent times. According to experts, broadly four species of locusts are found in India desert locust, migratory locust, Bombay locust and tree locust. The desert locust is considered the most destructive.
It multiplies very rapidly and is capable of covering 150 kilometers in a day.
This insect, a type of grasshopper, can eat more than its body weight. A one square kilometer of locust swarm containing around 40 million locusts can in a day eat as much food as 35,000 people.
Experts blame the growing menace of desert locusts on climate change. They say breeding of locusts is directly related to soil moisture and food availability.
States stung by locust attack
Hundreds of millions of locusts, in what has been a fresh attack on Monday, flew over large swathes of land in Rajasthan from where they reached bordering regions of Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
Locusts have already destroyed crops spread over at least 90,000 hectares of land, mostly in western and eastern Rajasthan. The districts adversely affected by the largescale attacks by locusts include Sri Ganganagar, Jaisalmer, Barmer, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Churu and Nagaur, Ajmer, Jaipur and Dausa. The dreaded locust attack has not spared Rajasthan’s capital as millions of locusts were seen swarming over Jaipur on Monday.
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