Locusts swarm Rajasthan’s Jaipur, destroy crops spread over 5,00,000 hectares

While locusts have now entered several states including Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan faces a major challenge as locusts have damaged crops spread over 5 lakh hectares in the state.

India is facing a severe wave of locust attacks across several states including Rajasthan, which has badly affected farmers in the state. In Jaipur, locusts have ruined crops spread over five lakh hectares of land.

On Monday, residents of Jaipur witnessed millions of locusts swarming over the city. These locusts have caused severe crop destruction across several Indian states after entering from Pakistan, which had declared an emergency earlier this year after locusts caused large scale destruction of crops in its Punjab province.

While locusts have now entered several states including Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan faces a major hurdle, as the destruction of crops by locusts have affected the livelihoods of thousands of farmers in the state.

The desert locusts have already destroyed crops spread over at least 5,00,000 hectares of land in the state, mostly in western and eastern Rajasthan.

It may be noted that locusts have been making life difficult for farmers in Rajasthan for over three months.

In Western Rajasthan's Sri Ganganagar, Bikaner and Barmer districts, large groups of pink swarming locusts destroyed lush green fields laden with Rabi crops this year.

Several officials have been involved in clearing the locusts across the state. However, the problem seems far from over. Ministry of Agriculture officials are now spraying chemicals to neutralise the large swarm of locusts before they cause more destruction.

Farmers devastated

The swarming locusts have adversely affected crops spread over lakhs of hectares of land, as per an estimate. This has devastated farmers across several states, especially Rajasthan.

Rabi crops, including wheat and others, spread over three lakh hectares of land have been destroyed due to the large scale attack by these swarming locusts, which entered western Rajasthan from Pakistan over the last eleven months.

Jaskaran Singh, a farmer who owns 25 bighas of land in Anupgarh, told India Today TV earlier this year that he has been devastated due to the attack by the swarming locusts on his crops of wheat and peas.

"Had taken a loan of Rs 9,00,000 in my mother Amarjeet Kaur's name, but now that the crop has been destroyed. I have no idea how the debt will be paid off,” he said.

Jaskaran, whose eyed teared up while speaking, requested the government to compensate him for the loss.

Farmers in various parts of the state have been using different tactics, including desperate measures — beating steel utensils during late afternoons and evenings, playing loud music at night, creating wood-fire and running the tractor inside their fields — to scare away the locusts.

However, none of the methods helped reduce the effect of menacing locusts on crops.

Earlier this month, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot sought assistance from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to tackle the large-scale destruction of crops caused by locusts.

"The outbreak of locusts in Rajasthan has already started. Farmers in Rajasthan are facing the menace of locusts, which are attacking the crops in several districts of the state. I request PM Shri Narendra Modi ji to take this problem seriously and immediately give instructions to concerned central officials to help Rajasthan get rid of this,” Gehlot said.

“Crops were badly damaged in 12 districts of the state last year. We need to take steps asap so that situation can be brought under control otherwise farmers would be very badly affected,” he added.

“We need central assistance to deal with this.”

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