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Govt eyes copters, special sprayers from UK to fight locusts

NEW DELHI: With drones already being used to control locust swarms, India now plans to deploy helicopters and 60 specialised insecticide sprayers from the United Kingdom (UK) to kill the insects before they pose a threat to newly sown kharif crops in June-July. “Drones will be used to spray pesticides on tall trees and inaccessible places for effective control of locust swarms, while plans are afoot to deploy helicopters for aerial spray,” said Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar after reviewing the locust control operations on Thursday.




An internal note of the agriculture ministry shows that India will get 15 such sprayers from UK by June 11, 20 more by June 25 and the remaining 25 by July 9. “The sprayers will be deployed in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab, MP and UP depending on extent of swarms’ presence, where locust control exercise is currently being done,” said an official from the ministry. The ministry’s dedicated wing, Locust Warning Organisation (LWO), has been coordinating the locust control operation with the states.


So far, 43 districts in five states have been covered with treatment spread over 47,000 hectares of locust infested areas at 303 spots. As of Thursday, there are some active swarms in Barmer, Jodhpur, Nagaur, Bikaner, Suratgarh and Dausa districts of Rajasthan; Jhansi district in UP; Rewa, Morena, Betul and Khandwa districts of MP and Nagpur and Amravati districts of Maharashtra.

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