After invading rural landscapes, swarms of locust enter residential pockets of Kanpur

KANPUR: After invading rural landscapes, swarms of locust rushed towards residential pockets of Kanpur early on Tuesday morning.
The district administration sought police help asking them to use public address system to aware locals asking them to beat drums, tin containers, utensils and even bursting firecrackers, playing music system, to scare away locust swarms that are attacking residential pockets.
Residents in Khyora, Awadhpuri and Pemgaon in Bithoor woke up to a terrifying sight of locust swarms flying on their rooftops and gardens on Tuesday morning.
As alerted by police patrolling teams on late Monday night about the movement of locust swarms, locals were seen beating drums, ‘thalis’, playing music system and bursting firecrackers, to ward them off.
On Sunday, the locusts attacked the Shivrajpur area, now the swarms have travelled to the city's Khyora, Awadhpuri and Pemgaon, areas lying in kachar areas of Ganga river.
The locusts had invaded city through Shuklaganj Unnao, Fatehpur and Raebareli side. Now they have headed towards the residential side of Kanpur. "The desert locusts have already ruined the crops spread over several thousand of hectares in the state, now they have entered City limits," informed agriculture officer Uma Shankar Dwivedi.
Dwivedi and team members made an inspection of the pockets in low lying areas of Ganga and met locals and aware them.
The police through it's public address system also went across affected City localities and made anouncement and alerted locals to monitor the movement of locusts and keep their doors and windows shut to avoid it's attack.
“This was the first time that we are awaring locals about locust swarms intrusion in the city. We have went over localities such as Khyora, Awadhpuri and Pemgaon. There were lakhs of locusts coming from Ganga's Kachar area after crossing Unnao's Shuklaganj," said a police official while talking to TOI.