RAWALPINDI, July 4: The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) informed Pakistan on Wednesday that swarms of locusts from Ethiopia and Somalia were likely to cross the Indian Ocean and reach the country in coming days.
“This potentially dangerous situation should be closely monitored in both Pakistan and India,” FAO said in a statement issued here on Wednesday.
Two recent tropical cyclones have caused heavy rainfall in Pakistan and western India that will create unusually favourable breeding conditions for locusts until October along both sides of the India-Pakistan border and, for the first time in many years, in coastal areas of western Pakistan.
“The governments in India and Pakistan have been warned and they are mobilising field teams, equipment and resources in Rajasthan and Gujarat, India as well as in adjacent areas of Cholistan and Tharparkar deserts in Pakistan,” FAO said.
