Locust swarms enter MP's Balaghat district from Maharashtra

Swarms of locusts crossed into Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh from eastern Maharashtra on Thursday afternoon, a senior agriculture department official said. The pests were sighted over Sondya village in Tumsar tehsil of Bhandara district of Maharashtra around 1 pm, said Divisional Joint Director of Agriculture Ravi Bhosle. The swarms then crossed the Bavanthadi river and reached Balaghat district, he told PTI.

"Officials of agriculture and revenue departments of Madhya Pradesh and scientists of regional IPM (Integrated Pest Management) centers spoke with officials in Bhandara and took a stock of thesituation," Bhosle said. "Our staff in the border area is keeping a watch on the locusts' movement in case they reenter Maharashtra," he added.

Earlier in the day, officials had said that the swarms were moving eastwards, towards Gondia district of Maharashtra after entering Bhandara from Nagpur district on Wednesday. Clouds of locusts were seen at Temani village in Bhandara district on Wednesday evening. An agriculture department team rushed to Bhandara in the early hours of Thursday and sprayed pesticides from two fire tenders on trees in one-km radius in Temani, Bhosle had informed.

"The pests had settled on mango, teak, moha, jambhul, ber and other trees in the area. Pesticides were sprayed and by morning, a large number of them had fallen off the trees and died," he said. "Mango trees were affected the most. They devoured leaves but not the fruit. Also, no damage was seen in the paddy fields," he said.

According to reports late in the evening, locusts swarms were also spotted in Ramtek tehsil of Nagpur district. Bhosle said that there were two possibilities. "One is that the swarms spotted in Temani split up due to spraying of pesticide and some swarms flew towards Tumsar and other moved towards Balaghat. "The other possibility is that some swarms returned to Ramtek from Balaghat," he said, adding that spraying operations have begun in Ramtek area. Meanwhile, videos of `locust swarms in Mumbai' went viral on social media, but authorities said no locust swarms were located in the state capital and these videos were from other places.

D B Undirwade, head of the department of entomology of Panjabrao Deshmukh Agricultural University in Akola, said he was seeing locust swarms in the state for the first time in last 20 years. The state agriculture department on Thursday claimed that 66,000 farmers were alerted and asked to report if they saw a locust attack. "Our SMS alerts helped the ministry as we got call from farmers in various villages and could trace the locust swarms. We have been spraying chemicals (on crops) for the last three days and have succeeded in putting a check on the locust attack," a senior official said.

"We have noticed that the locust swarms have moved towards Gondia and may enter Chhattisgarh. We are keeping an eye on their movement," he said.