Swarms of locusts that had entered Madhya Pradesh from Rajasthan about a week ago have now begun moving towards Uttar Pradesh.
Locust swarms are currently present in 16 out of the 52 districts in the state and are concentrated in the Ujjain, Sagar, Bhopal, Gwalior and Chambal divisions.
On Monday, locust swarms attacked crops in Raisen and Sehore districts close to Bhopal. The most vulnerable crop right now is the short duration moong crop sown in these areas as a third crop between the Rabi and Kharif seasons.
“One cloud of locusts was around 2-3 kms long and attacked the moong crop before settling down on trees for the night,” said Shamsher Khan, a farmer near Bari in Raisen district. Shamsher and other farmers took all their vehicles to the fields where they honked continuously and removed silencers from bikes and tractors in the hope that the enhanced noise from engines would scare the locusts away. Summer moong is also sown in Harda and Hoshangabad districts where swarms attacked them two days ago.
“There are 16 affected districts in MP right now and teams from the agriculture, revenue and forest departments are constantly keeping tabs on the location of locusts and the direction they take, besides controlling their population by spraying insecticides on them,” said Agriculture Principal Secretary Ajit Kesri.
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