ITANAGAR, Jun 2: Keeping in view the ongoing and increasing locust attacks in various states of the country which is the largest in last 27 years, a meeting to assess the situation in context of Arunachal Pradesh was held on Tuesday under chairmanship of Secretary (Agriculture & Horticulture) Bidol Tayeng, attended by officials of the Department of Agriculture & Horticulture.
A committee to monitor the movement of locusts in the state and take preventive steps was constituted under the chairmanship of the Director (Agriculture) and its principal tasks will be to track the movement, sound alert amongst district agriculture officers, conduct awareness meetings and take adequate preparations for any eventualities. While the environment in Arunachal or the Northeast may not be very conducive for the locusts to thrive, the department is taking no chances and has decided to start monitoring and prepare to counter any threat.
Locusts are basically big-sized grasshoppers which normally live and breed in semi-arid/desert regions. Moving in swarms, they can travel up to 150 km a day depending on wind speed and are considered dangerous due to their capabilities in damaging thousands of hectares crops, leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds, barks, growing seeds etc. within a single day. As per observations, the swarms have moved from the gulf desert area travelling via Yemen, Oman, Iran and Pakistan before entering India and their current strength of 80 crores can multiply five times within a month. 
It was decided in the meeting to alert all the agriculture and horticulture officers in districts immediately. Agri & Horti Dept. PR

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
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