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Home / IAS Preparation / Locust Swarms

Locust Swarms - Causes of Locust Swarming, Locust Attack in India, and Governmental Measures!

Last Updated on Jan 23, 2024
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Locust Swarms are destroying crops, forests, and pastureland across Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and South Asia, and it leads to compromising food security. Desert locusts are the most devastating migratory pest on the planet. The present locust infestation has significant economic, human, and environmental consequences that might span decades. In recent years, desert locust infestations have ravaged many countries, from eastern Africa to India.

The Locust Swarm is significant for both the UPSC Prelims and GS Paper 3 of the UPSC Mains curriculum. 

In this article, we will provide you with all features and necessary information on the Locust Swarm. Study major topics of Environment from the perspective of UPSC Exams with us!

Also learn about the Great Indian Hornbill.

What are Locusts?

Locusts are giant grasshoppers that inhabit practically every continent and are noted for congregating in big, devastating swarms. Locusts frequently survive for numerous generations, spanning decades. Locusts are voracious eaters, consuming up to their full weight each day. They harm crops by consuming all portions of the plants.

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What Causes Swarming of Locusts?

Locust Swarms Gregarisation is associated with excessive rainfall, flooding, and, in certain situations, cereal crop irrigation.

  • High rainfall causes this swarming behavior. When there is sufficient lush foliage available for the wingless nymphs to feed on, their numbers increase and the insects can no longer avoid one another.
  • Flooding and heavy rainfall help the locust to spread its breeding grounds. Locust at the lower temperature had higher nutrient assimilation efficiency and grew more slowly than at the higher temperature.
  • Due to the wetness in the soil, locusts can continue to lay eggs when the floods subside throughout the dry winter season.
  • The sight, smell, and touch of other locusts generate a surge of serotonin in their brains, which turns on genes that govern their gregarious phase and turns off genes that control their solitary phase.
  • When enough developing hoppers come into contact with one another, gregarization develops. The groups of these hoppers then begin to march in quest of green food.
  • The social hoppers feature an eye-catching brown and black colour scheme. They will mature into gregarious, yellow-orange adults with recognizable black markings.
  • These grow into flying swarms that are carried into agricultural regions by the dominant winds.

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Locust Swarms in India
  • Due to the lack of available crops, swarms are moving deeper into India in search of feed and consuming tree leaves, as well as vegetable, fruit, and cotton crops.
  • Locust swarms reached India via Pakistan in 2020 and have since spread to Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra. Locusts reached Madhya Pradesh via Neemuch from Rajasthan and have spread to Ujjain and Dewas.
    • Due to its proximity to Pakistan and the rest of the impacted areas, Punjab has also issued a warning to its farmers.
    • A locust outbreak has reached Jaipur’s residential complexes in Rajasthan. Large groups of pink swarming locusts decimated lush green fields packed with Rabi crops in Western Rajasthan’s Sri Ganganagar, Bikaner, and Barmer districts this year.
    • Gujarat has also been plagued by a locust infestation.
    • Swarms of locusts have travelled from Iran via Pakistan to India’s Rajasthan, and have now successfully crossed the state line into Madhya Pradesh.
    • Despite its location further east, Uttar Pradesh has not been spared from the locust invasion. Swarms of locusts have been spotted in Jhansi, Agra, and Delhi’s neighboring Gautam Budhh Nagar.
  • Locusts are often found in southeast Iran and southwest Pakistan in the spring, from these areas they travel to the Indo-Pakistan border in the summer.
  • The fact that they were detected along the India-Pakistan border before mid-April this year has aroused concerns.
  • Swarms of locusts surprised Delhi and the National Capital Region in June 2020 for the first time since the locust pandemic in 1923–31.
  • While some swarms have remained in the Kathmandu valley, others have moved north to Ramechaap.

टिड्डी दल – टिड्डी दल का अर्थ, मुख्य तथ्य, भारत में टिड्डियों का हमला और इसका प्रभाव यहां जानें!

Locust attack in India 2020

  • Locust swarms from Pakistan have infiltrated Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, and Madhya Pradesh, endangering standing cotton crops and vegetables, according to the Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change.
  • Rajasthan has been hit the hardest. During the year 2020, the locust swarm arrived in India earlier than usual, in June and July. States are using a variety of methods to manage the swarms.
  • The main reason for the locust swarms in 2020 may be traced to cyclone Amphan. As cyclone Amphan approached the coasts, it generated shifts in the wind, attracting swarms of locusts to the country’s centre. Besides, the unseasonal heavy rainfall and strong westerly winds during their mating season also contributed to the locust swarms.

Get the details of Asian Elephant here!

Measures Taken by the Indian Government to Control Locusts

India has used modern technologies, including drones, to restrict the spread of crop-threatening migratory pest desert locusts, resulting in agricultural loss. India is making efforts to detect and destroy locust nesting places to regulate these swarms. The diagram below depicts ministries in India coordinating their efforts to combat the locust swarm:

Use of Drones in Tackling the Locust Attack

  • The Agriculture Ministry encourages the civil aviation authority to employ drones for anti-locust operations. Because locusts remain dormant after sunset, officials are spraying insecticides with drones at night.

Areas on high alerts

  • As locusts encroached on the national capital’s borders, the Government put several areas of Delhi on high alert.
  • In June 2020, the authorities warned people to make all necessary preparations to direct citizens to distract locusts.
    • The rules stipulated loud music, the burning of neem leaves, and the banging of drums or other instruments.

Ensuring Availability of resources

  • The centre has ordered 60 sprayers from the United Kingdom to combat the locust swarm, which has affected around 50,000 acres in Rajasthan, Punjab, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh.
  • The government has authorised the purchase of an extra 55 vehicles and stockpiling pesticides with Locust Control Organizations.

Coordination with States

  • The union government is working with the state governments to limit locust invasions. Surveys and control efforts are being carried out by more than 200 locust circle offices and temporary camps.
  • To effectively manage locusts on different days, 89 fire brigades for pesticide spraying, 120 survey vehicles, 47 control vehicles with spray equipment, and 810 tractor-mounted sprayers have been deployed at areas affected by locust swarms.

Coordination from Defense Ministry

  • A Bell helicopter has been deployed in Rajasthan for operation in the Scheduled Desert Area.
  • The Indian Air Force has also performed anti-locust testing with a Mi-17 helicopter, with positive results.

Use of Pesticides

  • The Indian government deployed drones to effectively control locusts on tall trees and in inaccessible areas through the spraying of pesticides.
  • Pesticide Action Network classifies some of the insecticides used as very hazardous. Organophosphate insecticides, such as Malathion and Chlorpyrifos, are extremely harmful to people and animals.
    • The government also used a broad-spectrum pesticide to control the desert locusts, but it comes at a high cost to the ecosystem and human health.

Also, read the article on Indian rhinoceros!

Key Facts about Locusts for UPSC

In the same family as grasshoppers, there is a type of insect called a locust. Locusts offer food for wildlife, aid in weed management, and improve ecosystems in various ways. Environmental factors set them off, prompting them to emit enormous quantities of serotonin and swarm in vast numbers. The following table shows Key Facts about Locusts:

Common Name

Locusts

Scientific Name

Acrididae

Type

Invertebrates

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Orthoptera

Family

Acrididae

Diet

Herbivore

Group Name

Swarm

Average Life Span

Several months

Size

0.5 to 3 inches

Weight

0.07 ounces

Types of locusts

There are different varieties of locusts that spread disease, some of them are

  • Desert locusts,
  • Migratory locusts,
  • Bombay locusts,
  • Tree locusts
  • Italian Locust
  • Moroccan Locust
  • Red Locust
  • Brown Locust
  • Australian Locust
  • South American Locust

Locust Species found in India

Only four species viz.

  • Desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria),
  • Migratory locust (Locusta migratoria),
  • Bombay Locust (Nomadacris succincta) and
  • Tree locust (Anacridium sp.)

Locust Locations

Africa, Asia, Central America, Eurasia, Europe, Oceania, South America.

IUCN Status

Least Concern

Locust Plague

Locust Plague is referred to as a locust plague when they begin destroying crops and decimate the whole agricultural industry.

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Way Forward

Infestations of locusts can also affect livelihoods and jeopardize regional efforts in food security. Experts advocated for a paradigm shift to fight the locust, which included the following measures:

  • An effective early warning system.
  • True Cost Accounting is used to calculate the environmental and human costs.
  • Developing an efficient governance mechanism to avoid locust swarms
  • Managing the locust issue may also teach us something about the agri-food system.

The current scenario may impact this locust swarm’s means of subsistence in the upcoming months. Communities will likely be affected in the long run, damaging their capacity to save, replant crops and livestock, and withstand shocks in the future. Since there are no technological remedies to control the locust outbreak, it is crucial to create a reliable early warning system and catalyse the ability to respond rapidly. Farmers and local communities must be aware of the issues and involved in decision-making.

Testbook provides a set of comprehensive notes for different competitive exams. Testbook is always on the top of the list because of its best quality assured products like live tests, mocks, Content pages, GK and current affairs videos, and much more. To study more topics from Environment India for UPSC, download the Testbook App now!

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Locust Swarm FAQs

Locust swarms are dangerous to standing crops and inflict significant agricultural damage besides leading to hunger and starvation.

Grasshoppers known go through morphological changes when population concentrations are high. Swarms of locusts can be as large as a plague, destroying crops and harming the economy of rural areas.

Locusts feed on plant leaves and sensitive tissues.

Grasshoppers, cicadas, and locusts are all herbivorous, flying insects with some capacity for sound production.

Locust attacks have now been classified as a natural catastrophe by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
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