ISLAMABAD: The National Locust Control Centre said on Monday it had completed anti-locust operation on 370,585 square kilometers or 2.24 million acres of land in 41 districts of the country.

In Punjab, during the past 24 hours, the operation was carried out on 1,952 acres of land in Mianwali, Bahawalnagar and Bahawalpur.

In Sindh, the operation was completed on 4,356 acres of land in Shaheed Benazirabad, Naushahro Feroze, Jamshoro, Dadu, Khairpur, Ghotki, Sukkur and Tharparkar, while survey of 91,181 acres of land in the eight districts was carried out.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the anti-locust operation was completed on 874 acres of land and 207,569 acres of land has been surveyed.

The biggest operation was carried out in Balochistan where locust control operation was carried out on 7,279 acres of land, while 372,140 acres of land was surveyed in 26 districts. So far, survey of 30.1 million acres of land and control operation has been carried out in 1,119,387 acres of land in Balochistan.

Meanwhile, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, in a new update, says that swarms that accumulate in northern Somalia are likely to migrate across the Indian Ocean to the summer breeding areas along the Indo-Pakistan border.

In Iran, locust infestations declined further in the south, and only adult groups remain along the Pakistan border in the interior of Sistan-Baluchestan and hopper groups are present in South Khorasan. Seven countries, including Pakistan, should remain on high alert during the next four weeks, the FAO says.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2020