Punjab gears up to tackle locusts causing havoc in Rajasthan & UP

BATHINDA: Going by the locust attacks in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh and the probability of them spreading to Punjab , the state agriculture department has prepared an action plan centred around 3Ms — medicine, machine and man.

The deartment is arranging sufficient medicine and has asked field officials to prepare a contingency plan on the availability of tractors having facility of mounting pipes which could be used for spraying medicine and keep workforce on standby for dealing with an attack during any time of the day.

Officials have been asked to identify persons who have such tractors and owners of shops and godowns with stocks of medicine for repelling locusts for any emergency use.

The department has been asked to supply sufficient quantity of medicine to districts which could be affected by such an attack.

Swarms of locusts were first spotted at Jaipur in Rajasthan and then Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh, from where they headed towards Dausa district.

It is after 27 years that such big swarms of locusts have been spotted in India. They can cause immense loss to agriculture.

In Punjab, small swarms of locusts had been spotted at least on four occasions in the border districts of Fazilka and Ferozepur with Roopnagar and Bareka villages being hotspots for locusts.

As per Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), locusts are expected to attack various places in the country in summer, starting late May.

The FAO has said that a one-square-kilometre swam having nearly 4 crore locusts could cause loss of food in a day which is sufficient for 35,000 persons.

Insecticides chlorpyrifos and lambda cyhalothrin are sprayed to kill locusts, which are approved by the Indian government and the FAO, with no effect on ecology or crops.