Swarms of locusts now land in Karachi, pose threat to farmlands, vegetation

KARACHI: Swarms of locusts have descended in Karachi and reported at Bahadurabad, Gulshan Iqbal and other city areas along with the farmlands of Malir, Gadap and Bin Qasim Towns of the city, ARY News reported on Monday.

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The swarms of locusts also disturbed a cricket match at the National Stadium of Karachi between Sindh and Northern teams.

The crop eating insects bring hunger with them by thoroughly eating cops and vegetation they find at any place.

The residents of Malir, Korangi, Gulshan Iqbal, Hassan Square, Bahadurabad and adjoining areas have witnessed large swarms of locusts disturbing the normal life in the city.

The swarms of locusts also descended at the Old Sabzi Mandi, National Stadium and a private school and hospital at the Stadium Road.

Federal Plant Protection Department in a report said that November is the month of breeding for locusts adding that the swarms of the insect are moving from the desert areas of Sindh to Balochistan.

Sindh’s agriculture minister had recently asked the plant protection department for spray of insecticide in the areas infested by the locusts in the province.

After the interior of Sindh locusts now posing threat to standing crops spread over several hectares in Malir, Gadap and other areas in the outskirts of Karachi.

Karachi farmers have expressed grave concern over their locust-infested fields and appealed to the provincial authorities to take measures in a timely manner to save their crops.

In June this year, swarms of locusts attacked cotton fields in Khairpur, Sukkur, and Ghotki. Farmers had to bear losses of hundreds of thousands of rupees due to crop loss in the attack.

The crops were affected in Khairpur’s Naaro, Chondko, Thari Meerwah, Sukkur’s Saleh Pat, Thikrato, Mubarakpur and Ghotki’s Khanpur Mahar and Khangarh.

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in first week of September had warned that the situation relating to locusts in Pakistan was “most serious” as a second generation of the insect had been bred.

According to the FAO’s Locust Watch report, there remains a risk of further breeding, causing locust numbers to increase, with the possibility of swarm formation from late September onward.

Yemen and India are also facing a similar situation, and the situation could deteriorate in Ethiopia and Eritrea, report said.