Punjab on alert after locusts hit wheat crop in Rajasthan, Pakistan

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 19

Worried about the locust attack in Gujarat and neighbouring Rajasthan that has devoured wheat crop over a large area, the Punjab Government has launched a massive awareness drive in the districts bordering Rajasthan.

The government has sent its officials to the affected districts of Rajasthan, mainly Sriganganagar, to study and warn about any movement of swarm of locust towards the state. The government functionaries are also in touch with their counterparts and farmers in Pakistan as groups of locusts have arrived from across the border. Agriculture Department officials in Fazilka, Bathinda, Ferozepur and Tarn Taran have been put on alert and told to closely monitor the situation.

Official sources say after an alert of swarm of locust moving towards Ferozepur from Pakistan, officials in Punjab got in touch with the agriculture department officials and farmers across the border. They were told that locusts were concentrated in South West Pakistan, and had not affected areas surrounding the international border with Punjab.

Agriculture Secretary Kahan Singh Pannu told The Tribune that officials were monitoring the situation in affected states. “Though the locust attack in Rajasthan has been tackled with, we are sensitising farmers in districts bordering Rajasthan. We have enough stock of pesticides and boomer sprays to deal with the pest attack,” he said, adding he was in touch with the monitoring team sent to Rajasthan to warn them in case of any movement of pests towards Punjab.

Meanwhile, the Agriculture Department is also on high alert in Anandpur Sahib, Ropar and Hoshirapur districts in the wake of yellow rust attack that has spread here from Himachal Pradesh.