The Desert Locust in Rajasthan and Gujarat – Diligent IAS 11/07/2019 – Posted in: Daily News – Tags:

THE DESERT LOCUST IN RAJASTHAN AND GUJARAT

 

For: Preliminary & Mains

Topics covered: About Desert Locust, Grasshopper, Locust Warning Organisation


 

News Flash

Agriculture Minister told Parliament that there has been an incursion of desert locusts in Rajasthan and Gujarat from areas bordering Pakistan.

  • Neither the desert locust control teams nor any state agriculture functionaries have reported any damage to the crops.
  • The last major outbreak of locusts took place in Rajasthan in 1993.
  • Desert locust belongs to the category of grasshoppers.

 

desert locust

Desert locust

 

Locust Warning Organisation

  • Locust Warning Organisation is headquartered in Jodhpur.
  • India has a Locust Control and Research scheme that is being implemented through the Locust Warning Organisation.
  • It was established in 1939 and amalgamated in 1946 with the Directorate of Plant Protection Quarantine and Storage of the Ministry of Agriculture.
  • The LWO’s responsibility is monitoring and control of the locust situation in Scheduled Desert Areas.
  • Mainly in Rajasthan and Gujarat, and partly in Punjab and Haryana.

 

Invading Locust

  • The tropical grasshoppers emerged in January this year from Sudan and Eritrea on Africa’s Red Sea Coast.
  • They traveled through Saudi Arabia and Iran to enter Pakistan, where they invaded the cotton-producing belt of Sindh.
  • The swarms of locusts are now entering the Thar desert, threatening the crops in western Rajasthan.

 

Locusts

  • Locusts are large herbivorous insects.
  • They can be serious pests of agriculture due to their ability to form dense and highly mobile swarms.
  • They are species of short-horned grasshoppers.
  • Locusts are not themselves a species.
  • Locusts are known to cover long distances in short time periods leaving behind a trail of damage.

 

Grasshoppers

  • Grasshoppers are ground-dwelling insects.
  • They go through a phase of incomplete metamorphosis before developing into the adult stage.
  • They have very powerful hind legs.
  • Grasshoppers can only fly for shorter distances.
  • Grasshoppers mostly exist within a solitary phase with little to no threat to crops.

 

Source: The Hindu

 

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