ANANTAPUR/VIJAYAWADA: Images of locusts eating away Aak (Jilledu in Telugu) plants in Rayadurg of Anantapur district created a panic among the farming community on Thursday. Several assumed that swarms of locusts that are creating havoc in Rajasthan and Maharashtra might have entered Andhra Pradesh.
Videos of hundreds of locusts eating away the Aak plant near the houses of traders G Ajappa and G Ramaraju in Rayadurg were posted on social media leading to the rumours that locusts had entered the district. However, agriculture department officials dismissed the reports and said no swarm of locusts has entered the district. “When the daytime temperature is high, the grasshoppers are found more in open,” said Manda Johnson, Principal Scientist, Agriculture Research Station, Rekulakunta in Anantapur district.
According to him, swarms of locusts that are creating havoc in North Indian states are fast and move like a fog. They clear away acres of crops in a very short time. However, the swarms of locusts are nowhere near Andhra Pradesh. When contacted, agriculture department officials in Guntur, Krishna and West Godavari districts, which share borders with Telangana State, said they have not received any alert. Alerted by the devastation caused in Maharashtra by the locusts, the Telangana government had put all the district administrations sharing borders with Maharashtra on high alert.
“We have even contacted NDMA officials, but are yet to get any alert and advisory so far with regard to locusts,” an official with the State Disaster Management Agency told TNIE. Further, another official pointed out that at this time of the year, there is no standing crop in the State, as most of the crops have been harvested. However, they said they are keeping track of the development with regard to the swarms of locusts in other States to assess the situation.