Desert Locust When united; the hopping jumping grass-hoppers become mighty and can fly across continentsSh. Atish Chandra and Dr. Nirzar V. Kulkarni
*Joint Secretary (PP), Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India
Chandigarh / 26 August / New Super Bharat News
Locusts are one of the oldest migratory, trans-boundary pests in the world. They are basically grasshoppers. There is a large number of grasshopper species, but only a few can be described as locusts. Locusts have the ability to transform from a ‘solitary’ state into a social, or ‘gregarious’ state in which their swarms invade skies, maraud the land and alarm the inhabitants.
During dry spells, the solitary locusts gather in available pockets of vegetation and are mostly harmless. With favourable ecological and climatic conditions, the crowding increases with release of serotonin in their central nervous systems that makes locusts more sociable and promotes rapid movements and more varied appetite. A breeding frenzy is followed in suitable breeding grounds. If plagues develop, considerable amount of time, money, manpower and resources are required to bring it under control.
Desert locust is the most destructive of all locust species. Its upsurges aren’t a new phenomenon. A plague of desert locusts can affect 20 percent of the Earth’s land, potentially damaging the livelihoods of one tenth of the world’s population and seriously affecting food security.
The locust-swarms can be dense and highly mobile and can then fly as much as 150km a day, given favourable winds. These swarms can devour large amounts of vegetation and crops. Locust swarms can vary from less than 1 km2 to over 1000 km2. In each km2 of a swarm there can be between 40 million and sometimes as many as 80 million locust adults. Each locust is capable of eating vegetation that is roughly equal to its own weight, each day (app. 2 gms).
The Desert Locusts at times, migrate to India for breeding in the desert area. The Scheduled Desert Area of India is spread over >2 lakh sq.km. and is situated in Rajasthan and some parts of Gujarat. During 2019-20, after a gap of 26 years, India witnessed a massive locust attack which was successfully controlled by treating a record area of 4, 03,488 ha, from 22 May 2019 to 17 February 2020. The control operation received its endorsement from FAO when their Senior Locust Forecasting Officer, Mr. Keith Cressman, on his visit to India on 16-17 January, 2020, appreciated the efforts of India and mentioned in his report that “the efforts undertaken by the LWO in 2019, supplemented by important contributions from other collaborators in the affected districts such as farmers and fire fighters as well as District Collectors, were successful in containing the outbreak. Clearly if this had not been the case, tremendous crop damage would have occurred in Rajasthan that would have had significant impacts on food security and livelihoods in western India and beyond.” These phenomenal efforts however, remained largely unnoticed to general public as the locusts customarily remained confined to Scheduled Desert Area.
This year, however, the locusts dominated the print, electronic and social media. Large number of videos, tweets and images were circulated by members of public. Locust became (in) famous and a talking point across the Nation. The locusts, though in small groups, travelled to hitherto alien areas within the country and 151 districts in 10 States appeared on locust map. In the course of this flight, they thrilled the audience across towns and cities including Jaipur and Delhi; thereby attracting attention of one and all, the scientists, experts, critics and the children. This triggered a sudden spurt in expert opinion, conferences etc. with dissemination of information including misinformation and scores of suggestions on how to control locusts started to pour in. Though, it is admitted that some of them were useful.
This fiction-like journey of locusts across 10 Indian States is probably attributed to the fact that this year locusts appeared on the scene very early, largely due to last season’s uncontrolled population on other side of the border, in Pakistan. This incursion was first observed on 11th of April; when the locusts were noticed literally walking across the border into India and later, swarms of pink immature adults started to fly in. To add to the woes, locusts found the prevailing dry climate and lack of vegetation in Rajasthan and on the wings of favourable winds, they furthered making inroads and travelling across [some parts of] Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, and even to Uttarakhand.
The year 2020 has become especially challenging due to exhibition of changed behavior of locusts as they were seen settling very late in night and flying very early in morning. They are also extra mobile and extremely sensitive to any noise. The conditions of local storms and strong cyclonic wind disturbances owing to Amphan in May and Nisarga in June facilitated break-up of swarms and re-grouping and sometimes unpredictable movement towards eastern India. The Locust control immediately geared up with the use of available sprayers after locust invasion was first reported. Last year’s outbreak could be contained only around February, 2020 even when the first locust citing (last year) was in late May. On this backdrop, strengthening of capacity and resources was anticipated and Government of India went an extra mile to contain this disaster. Strategic planning and high level monitoring was put in place together with proactive actions on strengthening resources, manpower deployment, awareness creation, capacity building and timely communication was achieved by various means. The focus was kept on participatory control while the States were empowered by providing a flow of assistance both in terms of knowledge and funding for resources. The States have been given assistance under RKVY and SMAM Schemes. The Central IPM Centers are undertaking capacity building of State Government staff and officers in locust control. The State Governments fully reciprocated and also using their past experiences, deployed additional resources; especially tractor mounted sprayers and fire tender vehicles.
Government of India imported additional 60 spray equipments from UK thereby strengthening LWO inventory to 104. 55 new vehicles were procured. 200 central staff is deputed for locust control work who are fighting this menace day and night even during this difficult and challenging covid-19 situation. Constant communication is ongoing with all concerned States’ Administration and Agricultural Departments. Whats app groups have been formed for timely and quick communications and real time information, guidance and locations are shared among the stakeholders.
Another peculiar phenomenon observed this year was that locust preferred settling on tall tress thereby making the control difficult with available spray equipment designed to spray on ground or at a certain height. The Government of India achieved another feat when India became the first country to use the Drones in locust control. The necessary permissions, protocols and SoPs were worked out in record time with cooperation of MoCA and DGCA. Presently, 15 drones are deployed in locust control. In addition, aerial spray capacities are being further strengthened. 5 CD Atomizer kits with GPS Trackers are being procured from a UK company, for fitting into IAF helicopters for control of desert locusts. In the meanwhile; a Bell 206-B3 helicopter has been deployed in Rajasthan for use in Scheduled Desert Area. Indian Air Force is also conducting trials in anti-locust operation by using a Mi-17 helicopter specially fabricated by Air Force for spraying chemicals in earmarked in locust affected areas. The results are encouraging.
Ministry of Home Affairs offered its share of help and included admissibility of hiring of vehicles, tractors with spray equipments for spraying of plant protection chemicals for pest control; hiring of water tankers; and purchase of plant protection chemicals for locust control under new norms of assistance under State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) and National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF). This has further facilitated the States in their locust control operations.
Review meetings were organized at various levels (Hon’ble Agriculture Minister, Cabinet Secretary, Secretary-DAC&FW, JS-PP), several VCs have been organized with different State Governments and Locust control preparedness has been continuously reviewed. Awareness/Training literature, Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), list of approved pesticides and awareness videos were shared with all stakeholder States and all the States were requested to make all necessary preparations for control as per SOP.
Virtual meetings of the technical officers of South West Asian countries (Afghanistan, India, Iran and Pakistan) have taken place on weekly basis. So far 20 SWAC-TOC meeting have been done this year. Technical information related to locust control in the region is shared.
As of now (06 Aug 2020), 92 no. of small or medium swarms and 11 adult groups have entered into India from Indo-Pak border areas. The Locust Circle Offices (LCOs) have undertaken control operations in 247,346 ha. The respective State Government also undertake spray operations jointly with LCOs as well as separately in cropped areas with the help of tractor mounted sprayers, fire tender vehicles, knapsack sprayers etc. The combined operations of 10 locust affected States till date (6.8.2020) is conducted in 249,403 ha.
The overall efforts and the monsoon rains culminated into confining the locusts only to Rajasthan and some parts of Gujarat. Hopper emergence in these areas is being monitored. The survey and control operations are in full swing with active participation of respective State Governments.
The present phase in locust control is supposedly the season’s peak up to September-October. India is fully confident to check the locust breeding and carry on the effective and efficient control of emerging hoppers. However, the challenge is not yet over. Last year’s experience is far from satisfactory as the left-over population from Pakistan kept invading Indian soils thereby affecting the prospectus of Rabi crops and as a result India witnessed an unprecedented duration of locust control extending up to February, 2020
Locust is a trans-boundary pest and needs an effective and synchronized control on both sides of Indo-Pak Border. If the controls are not effective on the other side of the border, India will be at the receiving end. The situation will unfold in coming weeks.
However, this two year locust spell has indeed left us richer on multiple fronts i.e. in terms of knowledge, resources, capacity building, cooperation, and management; while simultaneously enabling the stakeholders to understand the nuances of locust control.
Once complete control of locusts is achieved this season; it would be appropriate to re-asses the LWO set-up as the locusts are characteristic of heightened activity for a year or two followed by long periods of inactivity. In addition, the overall experience needs to be documented for long term insights and preparedness. This could well serve as a reference document for sustainability in terms of material and human resources.
