BAHAWALPUR: With the suspension of the pesticide spray to eradicate swarms of locust in the desert, crops in Cholistan are under the threat of insects’ attack.

The rural areas in two tehsils Ahmedpur east and Yazman of the district came under the attack of the insects on Thursday, Agriculture Director Khalid Sindhu said. According to the director, they launched the operation to destroy them.

Dawn learnt that the earlier ongoing operation had been suspended 10 days ago, mainly due to the unavailability of pesticides as the entire stocks provided by Punjab and federal governments have been sprayed by the teams of agriculture department.

The operation began in the wake of the influx of swarms in past months in Cholistan from the Indian side of Rajasthan.

Fields teams of the revenue department and the Cholistan Development Authority (CDA) fought against such swarms and, according to some insiders, succeeded to wipe out the insects but their constant flights from Indian side have damaged some of the areas in the vast desert of Cholistan.

The attack of the insect also deprived the Cholistan’s livestock of their normal grazing grounds. Farmers have demanded the resumption of stocks of the pesticides supplies to eliminate the locusts in the winter season.

Agriculturists on the condition of anonymity told Dawn that the field plant protection staff was forced to suspend the operation due to the late imports of pesticides. They said the government should have been alive to the situation.

CDA focal person Imtiaz Lashari told Dawn the the anti-locust operation had been suspended for about 10 days, but it was being resumed soon. He said presently he was in Kanganpur to arrange the resumption of the operation as the pesticides supply was about to reach here.

He said though the pesticides were in adequate quantity with the field staff teams but due to excessive operations to destroy the locusts, they ran short of pesticides.

Mr Lashari said the swarms were invading the desert from the border for their onward journey to Lasbella in Balochistan as the with the advent of winter season the Cholistan was now becoming cold and locusts were seeking rather some hot or mild weather areas.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2019