'Locusts Cannot Afford Mumbai': Twitter Turns to Jokes as Swarms of Fake Videos Go Viral

Have the locusts reached Mumbai? Should Mumbai brace itself for swarms of billions of locusts headed their way?

For the past couple of days, Mumbaikars have been losing sleep over social media posts and WhatsApp forwards of locusts invading Maharashtra and heading towards Mumbai. Videos of 'locust swarms' in Mumbai went viral on social media on Thursday, prompting authorities to clarify that no such activity took place here.

Maharashtra state disaster management officials said no locust swarm was spotted in Mumbai. "The viral images and videos have been wrongly attributed as being from Mumbai," an official said.

In India, swarms of crop-eating locusts have spread across Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. But not Mumbai, yet.

Almost as soon as news of locusts arriving in Maharashtra broke, Twitter was filled with concerned people asking if Mumbai was next on the cards.

In the last few weeks, India has seen one of the worst locust attacks in history. In Japiur, the locusts also invaded residential colonies, which is a rarity. The last time this happened was in 1993. Naturally, this has triggered panic amongst people living in Mumbai.

However, as officials clarified that rumours of locust attacks in Mumbai were just that, rumours, Twitter did they what they do best: joked about it.

In Delhi, the government has asked the concerned authorities to spray insecticides and pesticides on standing crops, vegetation, gardens and orchards to prevent a probable attack of desert locusts in the national capital. Although there aren't confirmed reports of sightings in Delhi yet, precautions are being taken.

Delhiites were also spotted joking about locust attacks, and there's also a Mumbai-Delhi war brewing on social media. Check it out.