Indian Agriculture Department on alert as locust swarm spotted in Sirsa district

In a fresh attack, a swarm of locusts was spotted in Kheri village near Nathusari Chopta block in Sirsa district last night. The swarm has been active in Bhadra region of Hanumangarh district in Rajasthan.

The district administration’s task force and farmers who reached the spot carried out an operation to eliminate the locusts. The villagers said the locust swarm settled on the trees in the village.

Village sarpanch Balbir Singh said the night-long operation was quite successful as only few scattered groups of locusts were witnessed in the fields on Saturday morning while the swarm was largely eliminated. He said the crop damaged was being estimated to be in about 50 acre fields in the village.

Agriculture Deputy Director Babu Lal said they were in contact with the Rajasthan authorities which alerted them on the movement of swarm along the Bhadra region. “Our team reached Kheri village in time and spotted that a portion of the swarm had entered the village. We spotted the locusts in about 200-acre area at the outskirts of village. The swarm arrived in Sirsa district with the flow of wind,” he said adding that they had urged the farmers to stay alert during the day time and play loud sound to shoo them away. The district authorities said there seemed to be minor crop damage due to the attack so far.