Our Correspondents
Islamabad/Burewala
National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has so far cleared locust from over 524,500 hectares of land during the ongoing operation in vulnerable districts of the country. According to spokesman, some 1,122 teams have been executing the surveillance and anti locust spray operation in the across country locust hit districts. The survey of over 355,000 hectares of land and spray of over 4,230 hectare of areas had been carried out in the last 24 hours.
In Balochistan the anti locust spraying was carried out at over 3,500 hectare areas of the land. In Punjab over 30 hectare of areas had been sprayed while the treatment of over 600 hectare of lands have been carried out in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Likewise, 100 hectare of lands had been cleared from the locust in Sindh. The spokesman said a total of 46 districts, 33 of Balochistan, nine of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, one of Punjab and three of Sindh, had been hit by the locust swarms.
Notably, locusts were spotted in Khuzdar, Awaran, Naushki, Chaghi, Gwadar, Athal, Ketch, Panjgur, Kharan, Vishok, Quetta and other districts of Balochistan. Several districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including Dera Ismael Khan, Tank, North and South Waziristan, Lakki Marvat, Karak, Kurram, Naushera and Khyber were affected with locust attacks. In Punjab, the locust hit areas included Mianwali. Likewise, the affected areas of Sindh included, Matyari, Jamshoro and Hyderabad.
Deputy Commissioner Vehari Captain (R) Waqas Rasheed along with the Agriculture Department officials briefed the farmers about steps taken by government for eradication of locust, lessen its damages and prevention of crops.
The awareness seminar held at the premises of the tehsil council hall on Sunday was attended by Agriculture Department officials and a large number of farmers.
Captain (R) Waqas Rasheed while briefing about measures taken by the government regarding locust control program said that committees have been formed by the government at Mouza level for awareness and prevention of locusts.
