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A swarm of desert locusts that infested Jaipur may head towards Delhi. They have already attacked Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Usually desert locusts are seen in Gujarat and Rajasthan between June and November but this year, they were spotted by the Union Agriculture Ministry’s Locust Warning Organization in April. They either move solitary or in small groups but this current swarming of locusts is a bit unusual. The Locust Warning Organization Deputy Director, Dr. K.L. Gurjar said that the locusts may head towards Delhi in the next few days if the wind speed and direction were favourable.
The green cover of Delhi can easily be infested and a small one square kilometre locust swarm can eat the same amount of food that 35,000/ people consume in a day. They also breed fast and a single locust can lay upto 500 eggs. Therefore, not only the swarms but also the breeding grounds have to be tackled.
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