Official visits 5 districts to assess damage by locusts in Rajasthan

JAISALMER: Union agriculture ministry joint secretary Atish Chandra visited Jaisalmer, Nagaur, Jodhpur, Bikaner and Barmer districts on Thursday to take stock of the damage done by locusts.
The officer met officials of the locust control department and the district administration to discuss the problem. Chandra said pink locusts will turn yellow in the coming days and huge swarms are expected to fly in the desert area causing huge damage to crops. He said a complete plan in coordination with the local district administration had been chalked out to destroy the pests. He said this time the locusts had entered in April, a month in advance compared to previous years. In all, 15 machines have been received at Jaisalmer out of 60 sprayer machines ordered from London. Another 15 machines will be delivered by July 20.
He said apart from sprayers, a private helicopter will be delivered in next 8-10 days which will be deployed in Jaisalmer and Barmer. A pilot is being trained at Dehradun and process of permission for operation was in progress.
He said since there are many waterbodies, fields and human population in Jaisalmer and Barmer districts, aerial control using the chopper will be done in only those areas where there is no human interference and no wells and ponds.
Five machines from London will be delivered in September-October which will be fitted in Indian Air Force's MI 17 helicopter. A team from the company in London recently came to Chandigarh where they saw how to assembly this machine with MI17 helicopter and is preparing the design accordingly. Besides this, Rajasthan will received 25 drones of which 12 have already become operational. Villagers apprised Chandra about the damages caused by locusts and requested him to get them relief. Chandra personally met the villagers and evaluated the situation.