Chandigarh, Jul 17 (PTI) Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday directed officials to make adequate arrangement of pesticides to deal with insect swarms that destroy crops, following a warning of possible locust attacks in Haryana in the coming days.

At a review meeting with officers of the Agriculture department during the day, the chief minister also directed them to purchase drones and other necessary equipment to tackle locust swarms, an official statement said.

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Agriculture Minister J P Dalal and Cooperation Minister Banwari Lal were present, it said.

While directing the officers concerned to remain vigilant, Khattar said the locust swarms should be constantly monitored till their presence in the state is eliminated completely.

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Adequate stock of all the resources required to deal with locusts should be maintained, he said.

During the meeting, Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Department, Sanjeev Kaushal apprised him that since the invasion of locust swarms in recent days, special supervision teams have been constituted to tackle the situation and spread awareness about the same across the state.

Kaushal shared that in view of the warning regarding potential intense attacks in several districts of Haryana after July 22, 'standing teams' of four departments — Panchayat, Police, Revenue and Agriculture – have been deployed at district, sub-divisional, block and village levels.

Besides this, a special task force has also been constituted in every district to monitor the arrangements to control locust swarms and prevent losses due to crop damage, Kaushal informed the CM.

Special training is being imparted to these teams, he added.

He further said drones were being purchased for aerial spray of pesticides and 66 fire brigade vehicles were available, besides 3,540 tractor-mounted spray pumps. The state government will also acquire fogging machines for use on trees, the official said.

He informed that the Locust Warning Organisation has warned of more high-intensity attacks in the districts of Nuh, Rewari, Mahendragarh, Bhiwani and Charkhi Dadri after July 22, as large-scale locust breeding was observed in Rajasthan's Jhunjhunu.

Therefore necessary preparatory measures have already been put in place, he informed the chief minister.

Sharing the details, Kaushal said that along with activation of tractor-mounted spraying facility, deputy commissioners have been asked to coordinate and hold daily meetings with the response teams.

He said that various WhatsApp groups have been formed in villages for timely sharing of information. Besides this, regular talks are also being held with the officers concerned of the neighbouring states.

Kaushal assured that the department was closely monitoring the situation, and farmers in the affected districts have also been urged to stay alert and inform the officials if they found locusts anywhere.

Three weeks ago, a huge swarm of locusts had reached Rewari from neighbouring Rajasthan. While a part of the swarm settled overnight in the district, the remaining headed for Gurgaon the next morning and eventually moved towards Uttar Pradesh.

Notably, Haryana had issued a high alert over a month ago after locust swarms attacked crops in Rajasthan and a few other states, but the insects had moved away from the state.

Locusts, popularly known as ''tiddi dal'', are short-horned grasshoppers with highly migratory habits and voracious feeding behaviour.

This insect can eat more than its body weight. A one square kilometre of locust swarm containing around 40 million locusts can in a day eat as much food as 35,000 people.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)