Locust swarms out of Vidarbha, no major loss to agriculture: Officials

Nagpur: Locust swarms that entered Vidarbha a week ago have left the region at least for time being, say agriculture department officials tracking the pest. The swarms have left without causing any major loss to agriculture.
Locust swarms first entered Amravati through its bordering district of Betul in Madhya Pradesh. It then reached Katol and Kalmeshwar in Nagpur district and parts of Wardha.
The pests were seen in Bhandara on Wednesday, from where the swarms were seen heading towards Tiroda tehsil of Gondia on Thursday.
“By Thursday afternoon the pest crossed the Bavanthadi river and entered Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh,” said Ravindra Bhosle, joint director agriculture (JDA) for Nagpur division.
Bhosle said it can be hoped that the pest has left Vidarbha — at least 90% of it has gone. “It cannot be ruled out that the swarms will not return. Since it crossed the river, it can only be hoped that the pests may fly away further,” he said.
According to the officer, the spraying that has continued for three days is expected to have taken a major toll on the locust population as even the length of the swarms were seen to have reduced.
The state’s agriculture department has alerted its counterpart in Madhya Pradesh from where teams had visited Bhandara.
Officials in Wardha and Amravati also confirmed that the swarms were not seen again.
In another encouraging sign, the swarms that were seen hovering around a paddy field in Temni village of Tumsar tehsil did not harm the crop.
This has left the agriculture department officials who were tracking the pest surprised. The observation is also being taken as a sign of relief so far. “However, the pest devoured the leaves of mango, jamun, mahua, ber, and babul trees,” said Bhosle.
“There was a paddy field right next to it, but fortunately the pest just did not seem to be interested in the crop. The crop was being harvested at that time,” said Bhosle.
Though a Kharif crop which is harvested by Diwali time, paddy is also grown during summers in irrigated areas.
“The swarm was located in Temni village at around 10pm on Wednesday. The spraying continued throughout the night, leaving a huge quantity of locust dead,” said Bhosle who remained there throughout the night. Two fire tenders were deployed in the operations.
“The mango trees were affected the most, the entire upper part of foliage was eaten but the fruit was spared,” he said.
The size of the locust swarm had also reduced substantially. From 17km length when it was spotted for the first time, it has now come down to 2km length and 2km breadth, he said.
Now, the focus is to ensure that the locust does not lay its eggs in the areas so that another attack happens in the monsoon. According to initial surveys, no breeding area was found, he said.