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In midnight operation, Jaipur officials use drone to kill locusts
This was the second time in a week when drone was used to spray pesticides on locust swarms in Jaipur district.
A drone was used to kill locusts in Viratnagar in Jaipur district on Saturday night and Sunday morning because the area where the crop-munching pests settled was hilly and inaccessible for tractor-mounted sprayers, said officials.
This was the second time in a week when drone was used to spray pesticides on locust swarms in Jaipur district. Earlier, drone was used in Samode, about 40 km north-west of Jaipur, on the night of May 26. Officials said the central government has sent this drone to Rajasthan for locust control operations.
“We got information about a 3km-by-1km swarm in three villages of Viratnagar on Saturday. We surveyed the area and found the pest present on 230 hectares but the area was difficult to access so we decided to use drone,” said BR Kadwa, deputy director of agriculture department in Jaipur.
Besides the terrain, what made the operation difficult was heavy rain in the area that continued until 10.30 pm. “We could launch the operation only around midnight,” he added. The operation ended around 8 am on Sunday.
Kadwa said locust could be controlled only in 105 hectare; teams couldn’t reach the remaining areas. “We managed to kill only half the swarm,” he said.
Three vehicles of Locust Warning Organisation (LWO), which is under union agriculture ministry, and three tractor-mounted sprayers were on standby. About 50 litres of pesticides was used in the operation, the officials said.
In the second operation, a smaller swarm covering 80 hectare in Amer teshil was killed by 2 LWO vehicles and 3 tractor-mounted sprayers. “We used 20 litres of pesticides to control locust on 45 hectare,” said Danvir Verma, deputy director (horticulture), who supervised the operation.
Kadwa said that so far, nine swarms have been detected in Jaipur district.
Locust outbreak was reported in Rajasthan in May 2019 after a gap of 26 years. The attack continued till February this year and the pests devoured crops on at least 6,70,000 hectares across 12 districts, causing a loss of around Rs 1,000 crore, according to state agriculture department.
This year’s outbreak began on April 11 when locust swarms entered Rajasthan from Hindumalkot in Sriganganagar and Babla in Jaisalmer. “The locusts spread to Jaisalmer, Barmer, Ganganagar and parts of Jodhpur until May 1. After that, the swarms began to wander farther, coming as far as Jaipur, which is about 700km from the international border,” said Dr Suwa Lal Jat, joint director (plant protection).
