Locust swarms enter Kanpur Dehat district

Kanpur: Swarm of locusts, after crossing Madhya Pradesh, entered Kanpur Dehat district and travelled ahead to reach the industrial city on Sunday following which an alert has been sounded in city outskirts such as Mandhana, Tikra and Chaubeypur. Farmers are also on alert in Shivrajpur area. They took measures like they beat dhols and created loud sounds to scare the insects and prevent their attack on the crops.
District magistrate Brahmadev Ram Tiwari sent a team of the agriculture department instructing it to prevent crops from locust attack.The team ensured spraying of pesticides on crops to save it.
The district magistrate said that the district administration had received information about entry of locusts in Shivrajpur area but they had not descended on the crops.
“All efforts are being made to ensure that locusts change their route and fly away,” he added.
Farmers have already started guarding their fields and sprayed pesticides to ensure that no harm is caused to their crops by the locusts.
The team of the agriculture department has asked farmers to inform it in case locusts descend on the field.
“We saw a small swarm of locusts near Baghpur village close to city”, said a farmer.
According to the agriculture department, locusts were witnessed in two groups--one in Chaubeypur which headed towards Unnao and the other returned to Kanpur Dehat district.
No swarm of locusts was noticed in Kanpur Nagar district, the agriculture department claimed.
Meanwhile, around 70% of locust swarm that entered Jalaun was eliminated in a six-hour-long operation. Deputy director (agriculture) RK Twari said chemicals were sprayed on the locusts which entered Jalaun from Jhansi on Saturday night.