This story is from July 1, 2020

Locusts invade residential areas

Locusts invade residential areas
Locust swarm reach the city areas, pesticides being sprayed and people bang utensils to scare away locusts
Kanpur: After invading rural landscapes, swarms of locusts have rushed towards residential pockets of the district early on Tuesday morning.
The district administration sought police help asking them to use a public address system to tell locals asking them to beat drums, tin containers, utensils and even bursting firecrackers, spraying of pesticides and playing music system, to scare away locust swarms that are hovering over residential pockets.

Residents across more than a dozen localities woke up to a terrifying sight of locust swarms flying on their roof-tops and gardens on Tuesday morning. As alerted by police patrolling teams 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 had attacked the Shivrajpur area. Now, the swarms have travelled to the district’s Khyora, Awadhpuri, Hengupur, Singhpur, Prempur in Bithoor, besides Chaubeypur’s Pacahur, Pem Gaon, Bansathi, Raipur Gopalpur, Nigoha, Jugrajpur and Bairibagh, low- lying areas in Kachar of Ganga river, said district agriculture department officials.
The locusts had invaded the city through Shuklaganj Unnao, Fatehpur and Raebareli side. Now they have headed towards the district. “The locusts have already ruined the crops spread over several lakh of hectares in the country, now they have entered district limits via Rae Bareli and Fatehpur, besides several other districts of Bundelkhand region including Banda, Jhansi, Hamirpur and Mahoba,” district agriculture officer Ashish Kumar Singh told TOI on Tuesday.

He further stated that there were inputs that these locusts had arrived in the district at around 7 am headed towards Kanpur Dehat at around 11 am.
Singh said five teams made spot inspection of the affected pockets in low-lying areas of Ganga and met locals and sprayed pesticides and aware them about measures to chase locusts away.
The police through its public address system also went across various localities and made announcements and alerted locals to monitor the movement of locusts and keep their doors and windows shut to avoid them.
“This was the first time that we are telling locals about locust swarms intrusion in the district. We have gone over localities such as Khyora, Awadhpuri and Pem Gaon, besides several other pockets in the kachars of Ganga. There were lakhs of locusts covering an area of nearly 1 km coming towards Ganga’s Kachar area after crossing Unnao’s Shuklaganj spotted on Monday evening,” said a police officer while talking to TOI.
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