All stops pulled out in bid to halt locust invasion

With South Asia hit by swarms, weapons range from bounties to air force support

South Asia is experiencing its worst infestation of desert locusts in decades, with crop-devouring swarms devastating the region's agricultural heartlands and now reaching as far north as Nepal.

While the insects are known for their signature swarms, from close up the desert locusts are distinctive for their size and appearance. They are a large type of short-horned grasshopper and the threat they pose is exacerbated by their migratory nature. With their rapacious feeding behavior, they lay waste to crops and other green vegetation.

Nepal, the latest country in the path of the insect invasion, is offering cash rewards to farmers who catch the locusts, in a bid to limit the damage caused by the destructive swarms that have ravaged harvests in neighboring India and Pakistan.

In the rural municipality of Guthichaur, in the Jumla district of northwestern Nepal, local officials on Monday announced a bounty of 200 Nepali rupees ($1.65) for every kilogram of locusts caught.

With farmers given the extra incentives to combat the insect plague, the hoppers they hand in to the local government will be turned into chicken feed. The plan is aimed at offsetting, to some degree, the huge losses caused by the swarms.

Others are taking a different approach. Scenes of people banging all manner of metal objects show a traditional method at work, with a simple premise－make as much noise as possible to drive away the ravenous insects.

"Besides making noises, the farmers are also producing smoke by burning dried plants and catching the insects in nets," Hari Bahadur Bhandari, chairman of the Jumla municipality, said on Tuesday.

He said the locust invasion has affected 10 to 15 percent of farms in the rural municipality in just three days of being spotted."The locusts have consumed plants of paddy, maize, millet and apples," he said.

The migratory pest can fly 200 kilometers a day as part of a swarm. They have gnawed their way through crops across East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula over the past year, and experts fear their numbers will explode in the monsoon season.

Worst outbreak

India, the world's second-biggest producer of rice and wheat, is battling its worst desert locust outbreak for decades. The country has pressed into service 15 drones to track the movement of the locusts and spray the swarms with insecticides.

Officials say the locust swarms usually enter desert areas of India via Pakistan for breeding in June and July, ahead of the monsoon. This year, the incursions of locust hoppers and pink swarms have been reported much earlier.

The authorities have also sought assistance from the Indian Air Force to conduct trials in anti-locust operations by using a Mi-17 helicopter, in what would be a first for locust control in India.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has amended rules to allow state government officials to use drones at night, a step that experts have said may help neutralize the locusts.

The government had already been using specialist vehicles and fire engines for spraying operations in nine densely populated states in India's north, center and west.

It said representatives from India, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan have had weekly talks to try to stem locust swarms across the wider region.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO, has warned of a new wave of locusts coming across the Indian Ocean from Somalia just as farmers are planting an array of summer crops.

Late last month, swarms invaded Gurugram, a satellite city of the capital New Delhi, prompting people to criticize authorities for not quickly containing the outbreak.

National emergency

In neighboring Pakistan, Prime Minister Imran Khan has urged a coordinated national response from federal and provincial governments and organizations to cope with locust attacks to ensure food safety.

The Pakistani government earlier this year declared a national emergency in response to swarms that destroyed large swathes of crops across the country.

While visiting the National Locust Control Center in Islamabad on July 10 to review the locust emergency, Khan said locust invasions in parts of the country, combined with the COVID-19 pandemic, have become a huge challenge for the country.

Khan said his government will undertake every possible effort for locust control since it involves the food security of the country.

The FAO has said that the locust threat is one of the biggest challenges facing the world's food systems, already creating devastating impacts in East Africa and Yemen. According to the UN agency, a small swarm of the pests can in one day eat crops that could have otherwise fed 35,000 people.

The organization has already received nearly $179 million to fight the threat. But that is short of its appeal to raise more than $310 million to fund the effort.

Xinhua and agencies contributed to this story.