Locust Attack - The Cruel Pest - Destroying Hundreds of Hectares of Green Vegetation - The Flying Army

What are Locusts ?

Locusts belong to the family of short Horned Grasshoppers, but they are something different from Grasshoppers. Locusts can able to travel a large amount of distance and can grow rapidly over a short span of time. They are the most devastating pest for the farmers all over the world because they can able to destroy hundreds of hectares within a short period of time.

Current Outbreak :

These locusts form a group and they are very large in numbers, that we call it as Locust Swarm. These Locust swarms cause a heavy damage over the Horn of Africa, Red sea area and South west Asia. It starts to hit the regions of Somalia, Ethiopia and then travels to the Kenya. It then reaches the Red sea area, where it damages the vegetation of Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Then it moved to the regions of Iran, Pakistan and finally it reaches the land areas of South west India.

United Nations (UN) organisations and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has alarmed all the nations to take some steps to avoid the locust attacks. Somalia and Pakistan has declared a nation wide emergency to take necessary actions in the view of controlling the damaging pests. Pakistan has announced a national action plan of 7.3 Billion US Dollars to control the effect of Locust attacks.

Favorable Climatic Condition for Locusts :

These locusts normally attacks the crops in the summer season and continuous to attack the crops till the end of rainy season. It also enjoys to grow rapidly in the moist sand, clay soil. As long as the favorable climatic condition exists for these pests they continue to grow rapidly. That means 20 locusts can change into 400 and that may change into 16,000 and so on. Likewise they grow in a large extent.

Special Characters of Locusts :

These devastating locusts forms a swarm ( a large group of locusts) is the oldest migratory pests in the world. They resembles the ordinary Grasshoppers but they show a slight different character from them. They can able to migrate over the large area. The most important character is that these locusts can able to change their habits depending upon the climatic conditions. So that they can able to breed and can grow rapidly at any climatic conditions.

Desert Locusts :

There are many types of locusts such as Italian Locusts, Asian Migratory Locusts and Moroccan Locusts. One of the most dangerous locust is the Desert Locust. Desert Locusts are found in the 16 million sq Km areas between West Africa and India. It can able to damage 20 percent of world's cultivating land and can affect the food security of one tenth of world's current population.

Desert Locusts are already starts to attack the food crops in the regions of Central Asia, Northern Afghanistan and Russian Federation. Under the favorable climatic conditions these locusts starts to reproduce and can reach 20 times of its current population within 3 months of time. An adult locust can consume 2 grams of food per day. A locust swarm of 1 sq km can have 40 to 80 million adults. When they are more in numbers they stops working individually and starts to attack as a group. That is what we call it as Locust swarm.

Locust Attack in India :

The locusts has already attacks the green vegetation and food crops in the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. The farmers in these areas has already suffered from lack of income due to drought. Now with the arrival of these pests, they started to suffer more and more.

The swarms of locusts of more than 3 kilometres in width and 1 kilometre in length, emerge from Pakistan and enters the regions of Punjab in the month of January. As soon as the locusts enters in to Punjab, they starts to spread rapidly to the nearby areas of Rajasthan and Gujarat. Farmers in these areas uses 400 to 500 tonnes of insecticides to kill the pests over a very short period of time.

These pests already damages the cultivable lands of more than 3.5 lakh hectares. Edible crops like mustard, wheat and more food grains are damaged. Likewise cash crops like Cotton also gets damaged. Gujarat farmers also suffered a lot as these locusts damages the cumin seeds cultivated more than 17,000 hectares.

Plea to the Government :

Punjab chief Minister Amarinder Singh and Rajasthan's Revenue Minister Choudhary has informed the Prime Minister of India to take necessary steps and to give compensation to the farmers who have suffered by the losses. Rajasthan government gave 31 crores to the farmers of 4 districts as a result of losses in their crops.

Is the Locust Attack is new to India ?

Locusts has already attacked India over the periods of time. During 1962, large amount of locusts invaded India and multiplies to a larger extent. It affects the food crops severely at that time. In 1978 and 1993, major food crops were affected by the locusts. After that it also invaded India during 2000, 2002, 2005 and 2010. Since 2010, no locust attack is reported in India.

Is the Locust Attack is new to the World ?

Locusts also attacked several parts of the world. In 1747, locusts attacks the food crops in the Syrian capital Damascus. It causes severe food crisis over the entire Syria. In America and Canada food crops were damaged by the locusts in the areas of Rocky Mountains.

In 1875, the world witnessed a large damage by the locusts. That locust swarm is named as Albert's Swarm. It spreads over a wast area of 5,10,000 sq kilometres weighing upto 27.5 million tons. Just imagine the damage of these pests...

How to control the Locust Attacks ?

In India, they are trying to use a chemical called Organophosphate in a very small amount to control the pests. They are planning to set up more spraying vehicles to control the pest attacks. But it may lead to severe environmental crisis as these chemicals largely affects the food quality and the nature of the soil. Till now the World Government has no other way. They just needs to control the pests by using the chemical pesticides and insecticides.