Locust menace: Telangana readies fire engines, jetting machines, pesticides against swarms

Hyderabad: In the wake of a possible locust attack, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has instructed the state officials to be prepared with preventive measures such as keeping jetting machines, fire engines and chemicals ready to eliminate the pests.

The government has commissioned a five-member committee to estimate the method of travel of the pest from time to time and suggest steps to prevent their entry into the state. The members of the committee include R Sunitha (CIPM plant protection officer), SJ Rehman (agriculture university principal scientist), Mohammed Jalaluddin Akbar (Warangal conservator of forests), V Satyanarayana (Ramagundam police commissioner) and Holikeri Bharathi (Mancherial district collector). The members of the committee will be camping in Ramagundam for a period of four days from Friday. They will take chopper rides to monitor the situation from Adilabad to Bhadrachalam.

According to a report by The Times of India, around 15,000 litres of pesticides including malathion, lambda-cyhalothrin liquid and chlorpyrifos have been kept at Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh border to neutralize the pests. The CM has also asked senior bureaucrats to keep an eye on the situation from Hyderabad and stay connected with the officials of the neighbouring states.

As locust swarms travel in the direction of the wind, there is a possibility that they might travel to Telangana via Chhattisgarh. The CM said, “Though the chances of locusts entering the state are less, all the districts need to be on a high alert.”  The CM has directed the officials to eliminate the pests at the state borders itself if they arrive. The officials informed KCR the locust that entered the country from Pakistan is moving towards Madhya Pradesh’s Balaghat from Maharashtra.