Locusts could reach India and Pakistan, UN agency warns
ROME: Swarms of desert locusts could reach India and Pakistan over the next few days, while Yemen is facing the worst locust outbreak in nearly 15 years, a U.N. agency said Wednesday.
The plant-devouring insects are expected to cross the Indian Ocean from Ethiopia and northern Somalia, the Food and Agriculture Organization said in a statement. Heavy rainfall in Pakistan and western India, caused by tropical cyclones, has made for unusually favorable breeding conditions until October, said the Rome-based agency.
Crossing the Indian Ocean on monsoon winds is part of the natural migration cycle of locusts and has already occurred in the past, the agency said.
“Normally, there’s a local (locust) population in western India and eastern Pakistan at this time of the year. The difference is that those coming from Ethiopia and Somalia are much bigger in size and number and they come in form of swarms,” said the agency’s locust expert Keith Cressman. “Local population is in lower numbers and scattered in the desert.”
Desert locusts usually fly with the wind and can travel up to about 100-150 kilometers (62-93 miles) in a day, staying in the air for long periods of time, Cressman said. “For example, locusts regularly cross the Red Sea, a distance of around 300 kilometers” (186 miles), he said.
Locusts in Yemen, after having already infested large remote areas, are likely to increase dramatically as a second generation of breeding continues in those areas, and agricultural crops could be at risk, the statement said.
The agency is organizing a month-long emergency aerial control campaign in the interior of Yemen that will start later this month. The campaign, worth US$5 million (€3.7 million), is funded by the United Nations, Japan and Yemen. It will provide funds for two helicopters, pesticide, and other equipment, as well as locust experts, the agency said.
India and Pakistan are also mobilizing field teams, equipment and resources in some areas, said the statement.
Locusts resemble flying grasshoppers and eat their weight — about 2 grams, or 0.07 ounces — in crops every day.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/07/04/europe/EU-GEN-UN-Asia-Locusts.php
I remember watching a news segment about the worst ever femine in mauritania due to these locust, May Allah protect us from harm.