India and several countries are now experiencing locust attacks that could destroy crops over huge areas.
What are locusts and what harm can they do?
Locusts are a group of short-horned grasshoppers that multiply in numbers as they migrate long distances in destructive swarms (up to 150 km in one day). The swarms devour leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds, bark and growing points, and also destroy plants by their sheer weight as they descend on them in massive numbers.
Four species of locusts are found in India: Desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria), Migratory locust (Locusta migratoria), Bombay Locust (Nomadacris succincta) and Tree locust (Anacridium sp.). Of these, the desert locust is regarded as the most destructive pest in India as well as internationally, with a small swarm covering one sq km being able to consume the same amount of food in one day as 35,000 people.
Current locust attack in India
The Locust Warning Organization (LWO) in Jodhpur monitors and tackles periodic outbreaks of locusts. There were 13 locust upsurges from 1964 to 1997, and after 2010 there was “no large scale breeding” reported. Once a significant outbreak starts, it lasts for about two years, and then there is a quietus for about eight years. LWO officials say that the current swarm building up is potentially the “worst in decades”.
A desert locust swarm in Rajasthan, Gujarat and even parts of Madhya Pradesh threatens to amplify into an agrarian disaster. Punjab is fearing a locust attack in southern parts of the state as locust hoppers have been sighted in a couple of villages in three districts bordering Rajasthan.
In January 2020, swarms of locusts from Rajasthan and Pakistan invaded the farms in North Gujarat and caused massive loss to standing crops like cumin, mustard, wheat and castor. Over 25,000 ha of fields got affected by the locust menace. The state government announced a relief package of Rs 31.45 crore which will cover over 11,000 farmers in Banaskantha and Patan districts.
Locust hotspots
The UN FAO has currently identified three hotspots of threatening locust activity, where the situation has been called “extremely alarming” — the Horn of Africa, the Red Sea area, and southwest Asia. Pakistan and Somalia have declared locust emergencies. During the past few weeks, major locust attacks have been observed in several countries in western and southern Asia and in eastern Africa.
The Horn of Africa has been called the worst-affected area, where the FAO has said there is “an unprecedented threat to food security and livelihoods”. Locust swarms from Ethiopia and Somalia have travelled south to Kenya and 14 other countries in the continent. Ethiopia’s Rift Valley has also been hit by the pest. The outbreak is the worst to strike Ethiopia and Somalia in 25 years, and the worst infestation in Kenya in the past 70 years. Without international help, the FAO has said that locust numbers across the region could grow 500 times by June 2020.
In the Red Sea area, locusts have struck in Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Yemen. The swarms are presumed to have arrived here from the Indo-Pakistan border area. In southwest Asia, locusts swarms have caused damage in Iran, India, and Pakistan.
Impact of climate change and corona virus
Some meteorologists suggest that the breeding locusts which threaten farming are an indirect fallout of the warming Indian Ocean. Last year, there were fears that the monsoon may fall short because of an El Niño, or warming of the Equatorial Pacific. However there was an extreme flip. By July it was evident that a positive Indian Ocean Dipole, or relatively higher temperature in the western Indian Ocean, was in the works. This led to record-breaking rainfall in India — then a cause for cheer — as well as in eastern Africa. But moist African deserts precipitated locust breeding and favourable rain-bearing winds aided their transport towards India.
On the other hand, coronavirus quarantines meant that routine coordination activities involving India, Pakistan and Afghanistan regarding spraying pesticides were halted. While it is some comfort that there is now limited standing crop in India, forecasts are for good rains in Rajasthan, and, paradoxically, conducive conditions for locust breeding during the sowing season.
A less highlighted aspect of global warming is that it may link disparate disasters — floods, pandemics and pestilence — amplifying the potency of each. Improved science and technology is only making it clearer that man’s follies transcend borders.
Sources: Reports in The Hindu and Indian Express
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