Rajasthan farmers, officials in night-long fight against locusts

In Garh, swarms perched on trees were eliminated

Farmers in Rajasthan are assisting officials of the Agriculture Department in their operations to control locust swarms, which have spread over 20 districts, posing a threat to the vegetation. The officials have been destroying locusts with insecticide, mostly in night-long operations.

Agriculture Minister Lal Chand Kataria had recently asked the officials to alert the farmers and get their “active cooperation” in the anti-locust operations. In a midnight operation in Garh village in Bassi tehsil of Jaipur district, locusts perched on neem and acacia trees. They were almost completely eliminated in a 42-hectare area on Thursday.

Assistant Director (Agriculture) Rekha Chaudhary, who led the operation, told The Hindu that a survey was undertaken to determine the affected area. Five teams of tractor-powered sprayers were formed for spraying high-intensity insecticide. “Though the Department’s supervisors were present in our team for monitoring the operation, the farmers guided us to the affected areas in the surrounding foothills through their fields,” she said.

Radheshyam Prajapat, 45, a farmer who owns 10-bigha land at Garh, said the villagers, reeling under the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown, were willing to render help to the officials in order to save their crops.

The villagers were also trying to scare away the tropical locusts by beating drums, tin cans and plates and bursting firecrackers.