Control rooms have been installed in each Punjab district.
Chandigarh:
The Punjab was put on alert after swarms of locusts attacked crops in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, officials said on Wednesday.
Farmers have been asked to monitor any locust activity, they said. Locusts initially entered Rajasthan from Pakistan. From Rajasthan, they also entered Madhya Pradesh in the past few days.
“An alert has been issued across Punjab (following a locust attack in other states),” said Punjab director of agriculture Sawtantar Kumar Airi.
Control rooms were set up in each district and farmers were asked to report any locust activity, he said.
Locusts, commonly known as “tiddi dal”, are known to devour vegetation wherever they settle.
In the past, farmers in different parts of the country have suffered huge losses due to crop damage caused by locust swarms.
Agriculture officials in the district were asked to buy chemicals as needed to contain any locust attacks, officials said.
The state government has sanctioned Rs 1 crore to contain the locust attacks, they said.
A detailed action plan to control the invasion of locust swarms has been prepared by the state agriculture department, officials said.
As part of this plan, agricultural agents were asked to maintain strict vigilance in their respective fields. Investigations will be carried out, in particular in the border areas with Pakistan and Rajasthan.
Spray pumps will also be made available to villagers by the Department of Agriculture to effectively contain any locust attack.
Head of Entomology Department of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), PK Chhuneja, said there has been a sharp increase in the locust population and that there is an imminent threat to agriculture and vegetation, particularly in the border states of Pakistan.
The Department of Agriculture and the UPA have carried out strict surveillance and are carrying out surveillance and verification of incursions by appropriate means, with the support of information from the Locust Alert Organization, he said. .
In particular, locusts were spotted in some villages in the Fazilka and Muktsar districts of Punjab in January of this year, but they were effectively contained.
Locusts are short-horned grasshoppers with strong migratory habits and voracious feeding behavior.
India had no full-fledged locust cycle after 1962. However, in 1978 and 1993, large-scale outbreaks were observed.
Local reproduction of locusts was controlled in 1998, 2002, 2005, 2007 and 2010.
