90,000 army officials deputed to protect crops
Staff Reporter
Islamabad
Locust swarms have been spotted in 48 districts of the country, said spokesman of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). According to the spokesman, the swarms of locust were threatening crops in 33 districts of Balochistan including Khuzdar, Awaran, Naushki, Chaghi, Gwadar, Athal, Ketch, Panjgur, Kharan, Vishok, Quetta and others. Likewise, 10 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including Dera Ismael Khan, Tank, North and South Waziristan, Lakki Marvat, Karak, Kurram, Aurakzai, Peshawar and Khyber were affected with locust attacks. In Punjab, two districts have been hit by locust attacks including Mianwali and Dera Ghazi Khan.
Likewise, desert locust has been spotted in three districts of Sindh included, Sanghar, Shaheed Benazirabad and Hyderabad. Some 1,122 teams have been carrying out 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 4,830 hectare of areas had been carried out in the last 24 hours. In Balochistan the anti locust spraying was carried out at over 3,400 hectare areas of the land.
In Punjab over 30 hectare of areas had been sprayed while the treatment of over 1,100 hectare of lands have been carried out in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Likewise, 300 hectare of lands had been cleared from the locust in Sindh. National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has so far cleared locust from over 529,300 hectares of land during the ongoing operation in vulnerable districts of the country. The chemical aerial spray has been carried out at 340 hectare of land in Pashin, Balochistan.
Meanwhile Federal Minister for National Food Security Syed Fakhar Imam said that Prime Minister Imran Khan while declaring Locust infestation a national emergency had directed the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to eliminate locusts as soon as possible. The National Locust Control Center (NLCC) details released said that the joint teams of the Ministry of National Food Security, provincial departments of agriculture and Pakistan Army were conducting a comprehensive survey and control operation against locusts in different districts of the country.
A document of NDMA revealed that over 90,000 army officials had been deputed to protect crops through ‘fumigation campaign’ against migratory swarms attacking on agro farmlands. The NDMA in its details had further observed that majority of the locust attacks were reported in Balochistan where 31 districts witnessed crop damage from locusts.
Similarly, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 11 districts became under locust attacks while 12 districts of Punjab and seven districts of Sindh were attacked by the swarms, NDMA said. So far 238399 square kilometers area, some 24 million hectares have been surveyed in the country. Meanwhile, control operations have been carried out in an area of 5,430 square kilometers (approximately 543036 hectares) the NDMA document revealed.
