BY:- ABHINAV KUMAR

A rising pandemic, then hardhitten by cyclone ‘Amphan’ and now locust plague.

A massive swarm of locust invaded Rajasthan, India overnight from Pakistan, the first case was reported somewhere on April 11. Locust are a regular feature in the country but this time the attack is huge according to officials and due to this it is being called plague. During an upsurge locust swarms can spread up to 60 countries.

During last season in December 2019 Gujarat was invaded by locust swarms and they destroyed crops spread over 25,000 hectares of land.

Locust are the oldest migratory pests in the world and there main attack is on standing crops. India is under attack by ‘Desert locust’ from grasshopper family which are the most devastating species of Locust. India is going through massive attack this time as the last attack up to this size was reported nearly 3 decades ago in 1993, 27 year’s ago .

India has suffered from waves of locust invasions over the years, 25 locust plague and upsurge were recorded between 1964 and 1997. The colonial govt. setup a Locust warning organization in 1939 in Karachi now in Pakistan, after a series of locust attack India setup a seperate surveillance organization on 1946.

Locust are currently active in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhaya Pradesh, Maharashtra and some parts of Punjab and uttarpradesh. Rajasthan is currently the worst affected state according to the union environment ministry and database. In this season it being reported that locust have changed their pattern of movement and are flying higher than previous altitudes along with this they moved in some reasons for the first time where earlier cases has not been recorded yet.

After swarms of locust attacked crops in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh an alert has been issued in whole Punjab (in the wake of locust attack in other states) according to Punjab director agriculture Swthankar kumar Airi , as reported by network 18.

Experts warns that if the wind pattern changes the direction of Locust currently headed toward Dausa and Karauli district of Rajasthan may tilt direction toward Delhi. Scientists at IMD also said that the wind pattern have been unpredictable this year due to western disturbance over northern India. “At present the wind in delhi are blowing from Rajasthan side this means that the locust attack could hit Delhi. However from may 28 the wind pattern might change to easterly said Kuldeep Srivastava head of IMD regional weather recording center, as reported by hindustan times. Seeing this high alert has been issued in Delhi and 10 district of Uttar Pradesh.

A single square kilometre of Swarm of locust can contain somewhere around 40 million locust, and in a single day they can move as much as 130-150 km. An adult locust can eat up to their own weight through out single day and full Swarm in a single day can eat as much quantity of food that is consumed by almost 35,000 people.

Recent update comes that the center has ordered 60 sprayers from United Kingdom and allowed deployment of drones for controlling locust swarm which has affected around 50,000 hectares of cropland across states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh,Maharashtra,Punjab. However not much damage to crops is reported as sowing season has not come yet and in most cases rabi crops have been harvested , but damage to vegetables and lentils have been reported.

These swarms of Locust have affected 23 countries across east Africa, the middle East and South Asia in 2020 the biggest outbreak in 70 years according to World Bank, on 21st of may world bank has given 500 million dollars in grant to help countries in Africa and middle East to fight locust plague.