Locusts spotted in more villages in Muktsar; officials on the job

Archit Watts
Tribune News Service
Muktsar, January 25

Agriculture Department officials are on their toes as farmers from some more villages today reported that they too had sighted locusts in their fields in the district.

As of now, the presence of locusts has been reported in nearly 30 villages in the district. Luckily, there is no report of loss due to locusts anywhere.

A team from the Central Integrated Pest Management Centre (CIPMC), Jalandhar, too visited Muktsar and Fazilka districts to assess the situation.

Some farmers said they spent night in the fields by keeping a vigil and making noise by beating saucepans, a traditional method to drive away locusts. “To prevent arrival of locusts, we followed all traditional methods last night. Luckily, just a few locusts have come here and no loss has been reported by any farmer,” said Surinder Kumar, a farmer of Danewala village.

Similarly, some farmers of Tappa village said they saw a few locusts and killed these. “We are fearful of our crops as the locusts have entered our fields. The situation is presently under control, but some timely preventive steps should be taken to avoid any kind of loss,” said Sukhchain Singh and Ram Singh, both farmers of Tappa village.

Baljinder Singh Brar, Chief Agriculture Officer, Muktsar, said, “We have got the reports about locusts in more villages today. The farmers are worried but the situation is under control. The locusts are not low in numbers and can’t cause any damage to the growing crops.”

Fazilka: Amid the reports of presence of locusts in Fazilka villages, the Agriculture Department has deployed a large number of employees to assess the gravity of the problem in the villages.

Chief Agriculture Officer (CAO), Fazilka, Manjit Singh said more than 100 employees had been dispatched to the fields.

He added there was no threat of attack.