India still to hear from Pakistan on proposal for joint operations against locust swarms

India had also suggested to Pakistan that the two sides could coordinate locust control operations along their border, people familiar with developments said.

India on Thursday said it is still to hear from Pakistan on a proposal for a coordinated response along with Iran to control the problem of desert locusts, which have devastated vast areas in all three countries.

A farmer whose wheat crop was wiped out by locusts holds up a male, left, and a female of the insects collected from his field for a photograph in Yak Boozy village, Baluchistan, Pakistan. (Bloomberg)

New Delhi is in the process of supplying 20,000 litres of the pesticide Malathion, made by Hindustan Insecticides Limited, to Tehran, for anti-desert locust operations, external affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava told a virtual news briefing.

“In view of the alarming situation of the locust problem this year, we had suggested that [the channel of communication with Pakistan] be activated and coordinated control operations be undertaken,” he said.

“We are yet to receive a response from Pakistan,” he added.

Hindustan Times had first reported on May 21 that Pakistan had not responded to India’s proposal for coordinated operations along with Iran to tackle the problem.

Srivastava said India had taken the initiative for developing regional cooperation to control desert locusts because of the magnitude of the problem this year. India and Pakistan have a channel of communication, at the level of locust officials, that is usually activated in June, he said.

People familiar with developments said India had even offered to supply Malathion, which has been found very effective in controlling desert locusts, to Pakistan.

In Iran, the pesticides supplied by India will be used to control locust populations in Sistan-Balochistan and South Khorasan provinces, the people said on condition of anonymity.

The proposal for coordinated operations was made by India against the backdrop of swarms of the destructive pests making their way to Indian states such as Rajasthan after breeding and maturing in Iranian provinces and Pakistan’s Balochistan province.

India had also suggested to Pakistan that the two sides could coordinate locust control operations along their border, the people said.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), hopper bands of locusts are maturing in the southwestern coastal plains of Iran, and another generation of breeding is underway in the country’s southeast. In Pakistan, adult groups of locusts are migrating to the Indian border from breeding areas in Balochistan, Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinces.

India has an institutionalised mechanism for cooperation with Pakistan, including regular border meetings between locust officers. Six meetings, led by plant protection advisers of India and Pakistan, are held every year from June to November, either at Munabao on the Indian side or Khokhropar on the Pakistani side, for exchanging information.