Odisha government to use drones to spray insecticides to kill locusts

Bhubaneswar: Pawan Kumar Agarwal, the Vice-Chancellor of the Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) on Monday said the government will use drones to spray insecticides in remote or difficult areas to kill locusts.

"Control rooms in Bhubaneswar and all districts have been set up to coordinate efforts for combating locusts menace. The Government will use drones to spray insecticides in remote or difficult areas," said the Vice-Chancellor.

"If locusts swarms enter Odisha, they may damage crops in western Odisha because after that monsoon will reach the state and affect locusts` movement," he added.

In a bid to control the locust attack in the country, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on March 28 had said that 15 sprayers will arrive from Britain in the next 15 days.

Locust swarms from Pakistan have entered Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, and Madhya Pradesh threatening major damage to standing cotton crops and vegetables, a spokesperson of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change had earlier said.Rajasthan is the most affected state, the spokesperson informed.

The desert locust is a species of locust, a swarming short-horned grasshopper. They are known to devour everything in their path, posing an unprecedented threat to food supply and livelihoods of millions of people.