Farmers Movement Archive

Locust keeps Punjab farmers on tenterhooks

Hardeep Dakha, sarpanch of Khanwala village on the Indo-Pakistan border in Fazilka district, is a scared man these days. “This year, I have grown cotton on 35 acres. Every evening, I stand with folded hands in front of the village gurdwara, praying that the swarming locusts do not attack my crop yield.”“Hovering over nearby areas of Rajasthan, the grasshoppers did enter Fazilka district, in early May. A farmer lost all his crop, spread over 10 acres, in Roop Nagar village. Located in our neighbourhood, Bareka village also witnessed a mild attack,” he adds.Experts say that a 1 sq-km swarm has about 40 million locusts. They can eat food equal to that consumed by around 35,000 people at a time. They can fly 150-200 km daily and ravage crops.State Agriculture Director Sutantar Kumar Airi visited the affected villages. Hundreds of litres of insecticides, mounted on tractors, were sprayed on the affected trees. Fire tenders were commissioned from neighbouring districts.Locust were also spotted in nearby Sivana, Muradwala, Chananwala, Khanpur and Nejeke villages in the district. Fear also gripped parts of Muktsar districts after reports of a swarm of about 2x2 km in Gharsana block of Sriganganagar district in Rajasthan. These villages — 3 MLD, 4 MLD, 7 MLD, 26 AS and 28 AS — are about 150 km from the state border. Earlier, these locust swarms had attacked Guluwala and Pilibanga areas of Hanumangarh district in Rajasthan. Agriculture Department officials say the primary locust threat was in the areas of Fazilka, Muktsar and Bathinda districts.A change in the wind direction proved fortuitous for Punjab as the locusts went back towards Rajasthan.Lachhman Singh (87) of Jandwala, also a border village, says, “I have seen at least three attacks by the tiddi dal (locusts) over the decades. We would beat our tin drums and scare the swarm away. This time, however, the spread of locusts is frightening.” He is right because the size of the swarm reported recently in parts of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh was as big as 15 km x 2 km.Jagdish Godhara, Assistant Plant Protection Officer at the Central Locust Warning Organisation, Suratgarh, says, “Locust concentration, at the moment, is not near the Punjab border. It is more than 200 km away, near Bikaner. However, the threat continues.”Secretary, Agriculture, Kahan Singh Pannu says, “The early warning showed that the main threat was in areas of Fazilka, Muktsar and Bathinda districts, which are located close to Rajasthan. We rushed our teams to these areas on May 28 after a warning from the Locust Warning Organisation. The locusts were only 50 km away from the state border near Sangriya (Rajasthan).”Later, the state set up 8-10 locust teams in each district. Each district also has a separate control room to keep a watch on the pest movement. Buffer stock of the pesticide has been kept at Bathinda, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Fazilka and Ferozepur to meet emergency needs, if any. The department also carried out mock drills at Tharu village in Tarn Taran district and Kandu Khera block in Lambi area of Muktsar district.The grasshopper has, largely, spared the rabi crop in Punjab. However, it can affect the kharif crop if not controlled. Since the rabi season is over, there is very less food available. The locusts will start laying eggs after the onset of monsoon and will have a ‘fresh force’ before the kharif crop matures.The grasshopper menace has spread to Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Several successive waves of invasions can be expected till July in Rajasthan with eastward surges across northern India as far as Bihar and Odisha, followed by westward movements and a return to Rajasthan on the changing winds associated with the monsoon. Swarms are less likely to reach south India, say experts.Locust cycles were witnessed here in 1926-31, 1940-46, 1949-55 and 1959-62.Experts point out that locust swarms were known to enter India largely during the monsoon. This time, the invasion during the winter was an aberrant phenomenon. The adaptability to the changed climatic conditions also indicates that the locust control mechanism needs a relook.Send your feedback to infocus@tribunemail.com

The Tribune

2020-06-15