DM leads night-long Op to kill locusts in Pindra

Varanasi: In order to save the crops from locust swarms, the district administration launched a night-long operation in the villages of Pindra tehsil on Thursday.
District magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma led the operation that started around 10 pm at Rajpur and other villages. The DM said that the operation to kill the locust swarm began with six fire brigades and 40 manual sprayers in Rajpur and Nayepur villages.The local administration would remain in alert mode to ward off the menace, he said.
The swarms of locusts entered the district from Mirzapur and Jaunpur districts on Thursday. The district administration had made all necessary arrangements to handle the situation. The fire brigade, manual spray pumps for spraying insecticide were already put on ready mode to start the operation after finding the locations of the insects at night.
Besides, all the SDMs, BDOs and officials of agriculture department, and gram pradhans were also engaged in tracing the location of locust swarms.
The DM also gave some tips to the farmers on how to handle the situation. The locust swarms can be diverted by making noise. The sandy soil is fit for the breeding of locust, hence the field of sandy soil should be tilled or filled with water to evade the problem. The farmers were also advised to use prescribed pesticide to save the crops.
The swarms of locusts also entered the Azamgarh and Bhadohi districts. Earlier, the swarms of locusts had hit Kusiara village in Halia area of Mirzapur district on May 28. The district administration had taken preventive measures in view of locust attack.