26 August 2020, New Delhi: No locust adults or hoppers were spotted in any of the affected areas yesterday. However, adequate manpower is on vigil for survey and control with sufficient vehicles and spray equipment in the States of Rajasthan and Gujarat.
Intensive survey operations are being carried out by Locust Circle Offices (LCOs) to locate and eliminate locust population, if any.
Starting from 11th April, 2020 till 25thAugust, 2020, control operations have been done in 2,79,066 hectares area in States of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana by Locust Circle Offices (LCOs).
Till 25thAugust, 2020, control operations have been done in 2,87,374 hectares area in States of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Uttarakhand and Bihar by State Governments.
As per the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Locust Status Update of 24 August, 2020, the risk of swarm migration to the Indo-Pakistan summer breeding area has nearly subsided. Weekly virtual meeting on Desert Locust of South-West Asian countries (Afghanistan, India, Iran and Pakistan) is being organized by FAO. 23 virtual meetings of the technical officers of South West Asian countries have taken place so far.
