India awaits Pak response on offer of coordinated response to control desert locusts issue

The Indian government has proposed a coordinated response to Iran and Pakistan for the desert locust control which is expected to move from spring breeding of Balochistan to summer breeding along India-Pakistan border. India has suggested providing pesticide Malathion to Pakistan to control the operation along the border, sources have reported. While Iran has positively responded to the offer, the Indian government is still awaiting a response from the Imran Khan-led administration. 

The proposal was made against the backdrop of reports that swarms of the destructive pests were making their way to Indian states such as Rajasthan after breeding and maturing in Iranian provinces and Pakistan’s Balochistan province.

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Pakistan response awaited

"It remains to be seen if Pakistan will rise above its narrow-minded approach, as was seen in the case of India’s regional initiative for COVID and come forward with cooperation on coordinated desert locust control operation with India," ANI sources reported. Pakistan was also the last member country of SAARC to pledge support to the COVID relief fund proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi while Pakistan PM Imran Khan had given the SAARC meet a skip. 

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According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), hopper bands of locusts are maturing in the southwestern coastal plains of in Iran, and another generation of breeding is underway in the country’s southeast, where hatching is taking place on the coast and in the interior of Sistan-Baluchistan. FAO reports suggest the desert locust population is expected to move from spring breeding areas in Balochistan to summer breeding along the India-Pakistan border. In India, more adult groups and small swarms have arrived from Pakistan in the past few weeks, and moved into Rajasthan, reaching Jodhpur.

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