Delhi govt organises awareness camp on desert locust attack

Following directions from Delhi Development Minister Gopal Rai, authorities on Friday organized a campaign to create awareness among farmers to prevent a probable attack of desert locusts in the national capital. Officials said the agriculture unit of the Development Department organized a training-cum-demonstration camp in Daryapur village in North Delhi in coordination with the officers of Krishi Vigyan Kendra.

The Delhi government had on Thursday asked authorities concerned to spray insecticides and pesticides on crops and vegetation to prevent a probable desert locust attack, with Rai saying an awareness campaign would be run over the issue. Joint Director, Agriculture Department, A P Saini in the advisory issued on Wednesday asked the authorities to organize awareness programs for the public and farmers to prevent the attack of locusts in the national capital.

"As the swarm of locusts flies in daytime, and rests during the night, it should not be allowed to rest at night," the advisory read. It asked the authorities to carry out spraying of pesticides chlorpyrifos and malathion.

Also, Delhi's forest department is considering covering the saplings in its nurseries with polythene to protect them against the desert locust attack. "It is not possible to cover the trees. We will at least cover the saplings in the nurseries," Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Ishwar Singh said.

"Covering plants with polythene can also counter-productive during this heat. So, we will do this only when we know for sure that the swarm of locusts is headed towards Delhi," the official said. Singh said in a city like Delhi, spraying of chemicals can be detrimental to the environment.

"If we spray the vegetation, trees, and plants with a chemical in anticipation of a locust attack, we should also consider how dangerous it will be for the environment," he said. There are 14 lakh saplings in 14 government nurseries across Delhi, Singh said.

India is battling the worst desert locust outbreak. The crop-destroying swarms first attacked Rajasthan and have now spread to Punjab, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh. According to experts, broadly four species of locusts are found in India -- desert locust, migratory locust, Bombay locust, and tree locust.

The desert locust is considered the most destructive. It multiplies very rapidly and is capable of covering 150 kilometers in a day. This insect, a type of grasshopper, can eat more than its body weight. One square kilometer of locust swarm containing around 40 million locusts can in a day eat as much food as 35,000 people.

Experts blame the growing menace of desert locusts on climate change. They say breeding of locusts is directly related to soil moisture and food availability.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)