Why locusts are attacking India's cities?

Locusts attacked in India

In India, a locust team has attacked. The special thing is that this time locusts are not getting a crop to eat, then they are moving towards cities. 

Locusts are so dangerous that if they are not controlled in time, they can cause a grain crisis in a country. When their herd moves, they eat every grain plant that comes in the way. During the last 25 years, these locusts in African countries such as Ethiopia and Somalia have created a grain crisis. And now these locusts have started creating terror in India too.  

April 11, 2020 was the date when a large swarm of locusts were spotted along the Indo-Pakistan border, entering India. After enrolling in India, these grasshoppers are now starting to appear in the cities except in the fields. For the past few days, their herd is being seen in the cities of Rajasthan. Apart from this, they have also been seen in some parts of Madhya Pradesh and some parts of Maharashtra like Vidarbha. But their arrival in India at this time and entering cities is a bit unexpected. The reason for this is that usually a locust team enters India in July-October. Instead of entering India, the border of Pakistan is adjacent to Rajasthan and Gujarat. In the year 2019 also, these locusts ruined the rabi growing crop in western Rajasthan and northern Gujarat. This was the first major locust attack on India after 1997 in 2019. But now for the second year in a row, these locusts have attacked. On April 11, 2020, for the first time, the Ministry of Agriculture had issued a warning regarding the attack of these locusts in Sriganganagar and Jaisalmer districts of Rajasthan. 

KL Gurjar, deputy director of the Local Warning Organization, which comes under the Ministry of Agriculture, says that this team of locusts has attacked ahead of time. Right now there is no crop in the field, so this team of locusts is moving towards the greenery seen in the cities. This is the reason why these locusts are being seen in Jaipur in Rajasthan, Gwalior, Morena and Shivpur in Madhya Pradesh, Amravati, Nagpur and Wardha in Maharashtra. According to KL Gurjar, currently three to four teams of locusts are in Rajasthan, two to three teams are in Madhya Pradesh and a small part of this party has gone to Maharashtra. According to the Locust Warning Organization, due to the high wind speed, these locusts are being penetrated in different states, which can travel about 150 km in a day.  

Keith Kressman, an expert on locusts in the United Nations, believes that these locusts always roam around in search of food. The monsoon has not started yet, so this locust of locusts has come to Rajasthan. And due to drought, they are targeting greenery of cities. It is a matter of why it has come to India about three months ago, so it will have to go in the year 2018, when Mekunu ruined Oman and Luban ruined Yemen badly. 

Due to these two storms, the big deserts of these two countries were transformed into lakes. This led to an increase in the breeding of locusts, which continued continuously till 2019. The number of locusts continued to increase and they continued to attack in East Africa. In November, 2019, the breeding level of locusts became very high. In March-April 2020, there was strong rains in East Africa, so to avoid this group of locusts reached Pakistan via Iran and then entered India from there.  

At present, the risk of loss of crops from the attacks of these locusts in India is extremely low. The reason for this is that there is no crop in the field at the moment. Preparations are now underway to plant paddy seeds, so there is still time for crops to grow. Orange farmers in Maharashtra have expressed some concern, but their attack in Maharashtra is so weak that it can be easily dealt with. KL Gurjar, deputy director of Local Warning Organization himself, has also confirmed this. However, the problem may be greater when breeding of this herd begins. This breeding will start with the onset of monsoon. Generally a female grasshopper is around 3 months of age. The female lays 80 to 90 eggs at a time and in three months she lays eggs three times. This means that a female grasshopper prepares more than 250 new grasshoppers in her three months of life.  

And if the breeding of these locusts is not controlled, then there will be 4 to 8 crore locusts in one square kilometer. And if they start breeding, then it will be difficult to stop them, because by then the kharif crop will be ready in the fields. Efforts have been started by the government to ensure that there is no loss of kharif crop. Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has held a review meeting for this. After the meeting, it has been claimed that 21,675 hectares of land has been sprayed with pesticides to eliminate locusts. Also, 60 spray machines have been ordered from Britain, which can eliminate these locusts. At the same time, there are already 50 spray machines. KL Gurjar, deputy director of the Local Warning Organization, claims that there is no shortage of locusts, so drones are being resorted to.