E-Paper
Winds and timing save the day for Noida from invasion of locusts
Noida:
Noida:
The favourable wind directions and timing saved the day for Gautam Budh Nagar, its green belts and about 55,000 hectares of farmlands from the invasion of a swarm of locusts on Saturday.
The swarm of locusts that had entered GB Nagar during afternoon hours from Faridabad, flew over some of the district’s villages of agriculture importance and entered the Bulandshahr district where it’s expected to rest and feed after the sunset before regaining momentum with the sunrise, officials and experts said.
According to the experts, the swarm entered the district along with strong winds of about 30-40 km per hour of favourable westerly and south-westerly directions that gave it a trajectory to move forward and out of the city limits.
“The locust swarm has passed the Noida area and entered the Bulandshahr, moving towards Agra. It rests during the night time and feeds. So, the time it entered Noida there were good winds which were driving them forward. Also, it was afternoon, so the swarm did not settle here. It was a close shave for this city,” said KL Gurjar, deputy director, Locust Warning Organisation (LWO).
He said that the locusts fly in the form of a huge swarm in search of food — crops and other vegetation. “These insects can incur huge loss to crops and trees, but they are not dangerous for urban settlements,” Gurjar said.
On Saturday morning, the district administration had raised alarm asking the district level locust control team -- constituted in May as a precautionary measure following the locust attack in Rajasthan – to prepare for taking adequate measures, including spray of insecticides like malathion and chlorpyrifos.
“It was a large swarm that was travelling in groups. One such group settled briefly at Muhammadpur Jadaun village, but farmers and a district team were already on alert, and they were successful in shooing them away. However, it was the favourable timing and wind speed that saved the day. Otherwise, it could have been heavy losses to the crops due to the large swarm size,” said AN Mishra, deputy director of agriculture, GB Nagar.
Mishra further said that the swarm came through Faridabad, and flew over some of the major villages of agricultural importance, including Usmanpur, Bhatta, Muhammadpur Jadaun, among others, and then flew towards Khurja in neighbouring Bulandshahr.
“A large area where it made a pit stop had crops including corn, animal pastures and moong dal, while other areas had rice. Had the timing been a little late and they stopped here, about 33,000 hectares of rice plantations would have affected. Rice is one of the major crops of the city, and we export high-quality Basmati rice grown here,” said Mishra.
The swarm is currently being intercepted by the seven vehicle-mounted pesticide spray machines and a few drones of the Locust Warning Organisation (LWO), which aims to terminate it wherever its night resting area is.
“We are intercepting the swarm, and have also informed the respective district administrations to stay alert. We will tackle them as and when they settle. They can be shooed away using loud sounds such as drum beats and siren. They could be contained by spraying malathion 96, an organophosphate insecticide. Another insecticide, chlorpyrifos, is also sprayed through drones and fire brigade machines on trees where locusts settle during the night when they are sluggish,” said Gurjar.
He added that such locust invasions are common in Indo-Pak border districts of Rajasthan and Gujarat.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a swarm of locusts spread over just one square kilometre of area can eat as much food as 35,000 people would consume in a single day.
