Gurugram: ‘Hadn’t seen anything like this before, it was bizarre’

GURUGRAM/NEW DELHI: Shamim Khan, a fruit seller near Arjangarh metro station in Delhi, thought it was going to rain. The skies had turned dark and a wind was blowing. Some metres ahead of his kiosk, he saw a few “grasshoppers” on the road. He looked up and closely — there was a swarm of lakhs of insects flying overhead.
Like Khan, many residents of Gurugram and Delhi were left surprised after the swarms of locusts invaded the cities and flew around highrises or settled in the balconies for around two hours.
Many of them took to social media and posted write-ups on how they had never seen such a huge number of insects flying past their houses.
The Gurugram administration had issued an advisory a day ahead. But the residents said they were not prepared for anything like this. Sirens blared and utensils clanked as residents tried to ward off the insects.
“A swarm of locusts settled on my terrace — there were millions of them. They could not stay there for long as the management of our society had started blaring sirens. My domestic staff also sprayed water on the insects that had descended on there. We were spared much damage because we took precautions,” said Henry AS Ledlie, a resident of Beverly Park 2.
Henry, however, was not at home when the swarm descended on the roof. But he was continuously monitoring the situation through video calls with his son.
Atul Batra, who lives in Heritage City, had seen a locust attack decades ago in Delhi. But not of this scale. “I had witnessed the first attack when I was in college in Civil Lines, Delhi. It was somewhere around 1992, when insects had swarmed the entire area for 24 hours. But today, there were millions of them, sitting everywhere on cars to buildings to windows,” he added.
The management of Batra’s society could not take necessary preparations. But they had asked residents to stay indoors and shut the doors and windows. People had also spread the message on WhatsApp groups.
Many took to Twitter and shared videos and pictures of the swarms across several areas of the city. Most of them had seen locusts for the first time. “This was bizarre. I can’t recall seeing locusts even at my farm near Sohna,” said Aditya Arya, a resident.
“The entire Palam Vihar area was not affected, except for C2 block. However, since the locusts did not settle on the ground, there was not much damage,” said Sunil Yadav, a resident of Palam Vihar. Tarundeep Singh, who owns South Delhi Tyres on the Mehrauli-Gurugram road, said the swarm came around 11.30am, leaving people scurrying for cover. He went inside his shop, pulled down the shutters and stayed inside for half an hour.