Locust swarm gives scare to Bhopal; first attack in almost 20 years

Panic prevailed among Bhopal residents—especially those on the localities on Kolar Road and Hoshangabad Road—after a massive swarm of locusts entered the city on Sunday evening.

Later, the swarm moved away from the residential areas and towards the forested areas around Halali Dam, providing relief to the residents.

Bhopal has been attacked by locusts for the first time in this season, though 35 districts of the state have been till now attacked by the pests that are known to cause large-scale damage to crops and general flora.

Madhya Pradesh is facing a locust attack of this magnitude for the first time in almost 20 years, but the good point is that there is no major standing crop at this time in most parts of the state, assistant director of the agriculture department, A.K. Bisen, told the WEEK.

He said that like many parts of MP, Bhopal is also facing the attack for the first time in almost two decades. Madhya Pradesh had first reported locust attack around May 18 and since then fresh swarms have been coming into the state from Rajasthan side, attacking several districts.

Bhopal divisional commissioner Kavindra Kiyawat told THE WEEK that the teams of Bhopal Municipal Corporation and Agriculture Department were following the swarm with a view to destroy it when it finally camps for the night. The Zilla Panchayat field cadre like panchayat secretaries as well as people’s representatives like panchs and sarpanchs has been alerted to keep watch on the movement of the swarm, to help the teams destroy them.

“We don’t have any standing crop and the only major damage is expected for the forested areas where the locusts are normally known to camp. The swarm has now moved towards Halali Dam side with changed wind direction and the BMC and the agriculture teams are following them aiming to destroy the swarm,” Kiyawat said.

Bisen, however, said that if the swarm moves towards dense forest or inaccessible terrain, it then becomes difficult to destroy them and they manage to move further. Sources said that the swarm had moved in from the Vidisha district from the Berasia side, but Bisen said they were first noticed in Kolar Road area.

The residents on Kolar Road, Awadhpuri, Barkhera Pathani, AIIMS locality and other parts of Hoshangabad got into a panic mode as the massive swarm took over the skies. Some also entered homes, giving scare to the people. People managed to shoot videos and photographs and some also managed to capture some of the pests.