Following an advisory by the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer district has sounded an alert for a possible locust attack and directed authorities including the locust control department to plan, coordinate and execute a strategy to repulse it.
On May 17, FAO said a few locust bands are likely to form in May in southwest Iran from where they may move east towards Pakistan. “Small adult groups to form in southwest Iran that may be supplemented by groups and small swarms arriving from Arabia, which will move east along the southern coast towards Pakistan,” the advisory said.
The desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) is the most destructive migratory pest in the world. In response to environmental stimuli, dense and highly mobile desert locust swarms can form. They are ravenous eaters who consume their own weight per day by targeting food crops. Just a single square kilometre of swarm can contain up to 80 million adults, with the capacity to consume the same amount of food in one day as 35,000 people.
Large swarms pose a major threat to food security and rural livelihoods. FAO has long-standing expertise in monitoring Desert Locust populations and helping countries cope with this devastating crop pest.
Following the advisory, Jaisalmer district collector Ashish Modi directed all officials engaged in the locust control operation to ensure highest priority to containment operations. “If any official [is] found negligent or violating order, he will be personally [held] responsible,” he said while asking them to continue following the Covid-19 guidelines during the exercise.
Modi said as per FAO advisory, a locust attack in Pakistan at the end of May or in the first week of June was likely. “There are chances that after entering Pakistan, locust groups may further move towards India,’’ he said.
In the past two years, more than 10 states, including national capital Delhi have faced locust attacks. Rajasthan too reported the first locust attack in Jaisalmer district on May 21, 2019, after a gap of 26 years. Many other districts of western Rajasthan including Barmer, Jalore, Jodhpur, Bikaner and Ganganagar too bore its brunt. Locusts caused a huge damage to Rabi crops in around 10 lakhs hectares of land in Rajasthan and Gujarat. However, it was contained by the second week of February.
On April 11, 2020, the country faced the second locust attack spreading to more than 10 states including Rajasthan, UP, MP, Haryana, Bihar, Gujarat, Uttrakhand, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.
