DRONES: NEW WINGS IN WAR ON LOCUSTS

The government has mounted a new air defence to take down the swarms of desert locusts threatening crops across western, northern and central India for the past two months.

- Rahul Noronha and Rohit Parihar

Drones, fitted with insecticide sprayers, have been approved by the Union agriculture ministry for use in locust control. Two states, worst-affected Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have started employing these flying machines.

On June 22, the ministry’s Locusts Warning Organisation (LWO) pressed into service nine drones in the districts of Jaisalmer, Barmer, Bikaner and Nagaur in Rajasthan. A similar exercise has been carried out in the Shivpuri district of Madhya Pradesh.

Spraying insecticide with drones, officials say, could prove to be effective against locusts. Conventionally, locust attacks are tackled with tractor-mounted insecticide sprayers (for vegetation on the ground) and fire engines (for trees and tracts of uninhabited or desert land); such equipment was used in Sri Ganganagar, Jaipur and Ajmer districts of Rajasthan on June 22.