Iran agrees but Pakistan drags its feet on India’s offer to control cross-border locust attack

NEW DELHI: India has proposed coordinated response to Desert Locust control to Iran and Pakistan.

India has suggested to Pakistan that both countries coordinate locust control operation along the border and that India can facilitate supply of pesticide Malathion to Pakistan.

Iran has responded positively to India’s offer. Pakistan is yet to respond.


The institutionalised mechanism of Locust Warning Organization could be energised for such cooperation.

India has also offered to supply pesticide to Iran to carry out Desert Locust control operations in its Sistan-Balochistan and South Khorasan provinces. These efforts will contribute to mitigate the effect of the Desert Locust not only in these countries, but also for India, sources said.

As per the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reports, in Iran, hopper bands of the Locust are maturing along the southwestern coastal plains, and another generation of breeding is underway in the southeast where hatching is taking place on the coast and in the interior of Sistan-Baluchistan. In Pakistan, adult groups are migrating to the India border from breeding areas in Baluchistan where hopper groups are present as well as in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reports indicate that the Desert Locust population is expected to move from spring breeding of Balochistan to summer breeding along India-Pakistan border. In India, more adult groups and small swarms have arrived from Pakistan in the past weeks and moved east into Rajasthan, reaching Jodhpur.