Pest swarm splits into two, groups head to MP and Bhandara

Hyderabad: Officials in Telangana geared up to tackle the swarm of desert locusts as part of ‘Operation Desert Locusts’ heaved a sigh of relief on Thursday as the swarm split into two groups and headed in different directions away from Telangana. The swarm had come close to the state borders in Amaravati, Maharashtra on Wednesday.

“The swarm split into two groups in Amaravati of Maharashtra, one headed back to Madhya Pradesh while the other entered Tumsar tehsil of Bhandara in Maharashtra,” Y G Prasad, director, Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute (ICAR-ATARI), Zone-X, Hyderabad told TOI.

On Thursday morning, the swarm went east and it is expected that it will enter Gondia district in Maharashtra. “Whether it will move to the border areas towards Madhya Pradesh will have to be observed. There are also reports of another swarm in Mumbai, but this will have to be confirmed” Prasad said.

Though the swarm split and went in different directions, the threat to Telangana still remains from the small remainder of the desert locusts.

Moreover, a few locals in Rayadurgam, Anantapur, reportedly noticed desert locusts preying on a crop on Thursday. “The movement of the swarms is based on the winds. So their movement has to be tracked every day,” Prasad said.

Mohan Reddy, deputy director in the agriculture department, said the state is ready to meet the eventuality of the locusts entering Telangana, however, as the swarms change their direction, their final destination cannot be predicted,” he said.