Centre coordinates with states to control locust attacks

NEW DELHI: The central government is closely coordinating with states of Rajasthan and Punjab to control the locust attack on farms. Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that the government is taking every step to ward off the threat of locust army, which had done massive damage of crops in Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana.

“We have controlled attack of locust across 14,299 hectare at 150 places in districts of Punjab and Rajasthan. We are working closely with state governments for complete control over the locust attack,” he said, while reviewing the situation with agriculture department officials.

He said that the locust army has swarmed Indian territory earlier than scheduled. Locust Control Organisation has deployed 50 spray vehicles to get rid off locust army and restrict their spread.


“Generally, locust army enter desert of India from Pakistan during June and July. But this time they were first located on 11 April in Rajasthan,” he said.

Tomar said that the government is regularly coordinating with South-West Asian countries like Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan where locust attacks are a common phenomenon.

“We held a high level meeting with these countries on March 11 in New Delhi. Since then we have been organising virtual meeting on every Monday through video conferencing for reviewing the condition. So far we have convened eight meetings,” he said.