In view of the increasing activism of locusts in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, the central government has decided to spray pesticides with a helicopter. Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister of State for Agriculture Kailash Chaudhary and Purushottam Rupala will leave the chopper for pesticide spraying from Greater Noida Helipad in Delhi NCR today.
Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Kailash Chaudhary said that grassroots teams are preparing to spray pesticides with helicopters and said that the central government is taking this problem very seriously. Along with the use of drones to spray pesticides on high trees and inaccessible areas, preparations are being made to take the services from helicopters. All necessary steps are being taken in collaboration with the states and advice has also been issued to them.
Chaudhary said that locust control measures were reviewed at a high-level meeting last Thursday. To control this pest, 11 control rooms have been set up and special teams have been deployed and additional staff have also been deployed along with them. Control teams are busy in action in all places with the help of farmers. So far, hoppers and pink herds have been controlled in an area of 50,468 hectares in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, and Punjab.
Immature pink locust herds are active in Dausa, Sriganganagar, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Morena in Madhya Pradesh and Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh. Currently, 47 spray equipment or machines are being used for locust control. This will be further accelerated, so orders have been placed to supply 60 additional equipment from the UK. At the request of the Rajasthan government, the central government has approved Rs 2.86 crore for the purchase of 800 tractor spray equipment. The Uttar Pradesh and Bihar governments are also taking special caution over the grasshopper attack.
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