Worst attack in years: Locusts reach Jhansi, damage crops in Nagpur; Punjab too on alert

NEW DELHI: After damaging crops in 
Rajasthan
 and 
Madhya Pradesh
, swarms of locusts entered Uttar Pradesh's Jhansi district Wednesday amid what is being described as the worst attack in 26 years.

However, the concentration of locusts has been in central Rajasthan and they are not expected to move towards Delhi in the next 24 hours, according to an official of Rajasthan agriculture department
Delhi has been on alert amid fears that the swarm of locusts may move towards the national capital depending on the wind speed .

Locust swarms ‘headed’ to Delhi, UP braces for 2nd attack
A swarm reached Jhansi district on Wednesday, following which other districts in the regions are also on alert, an Uttar Pradesh official said.

Locusts had earlier attacked some parts of Jhansi district on May 22 and 24. Taking cognisance of the problem, Uttar Pradesh chief minister 
Yogi Adityanath
 has directed district magistrates of districts bordering other states to take appropriate measures to deal with the menace.

Instructions were issued to DMs of Jhansi, Lalitpur, Agra, Mathura, Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Mahoba, Banda, Chitrakoot, Jalaun, Etawah and Kanpur Dehat.

Adityanath and UP agriculture minister Surya Pratap Shahi instructed the DMs and officers of the agriculture department to take appropriate action, a statement issued on Wednesday said.

"It is not a new problem and we had been facing it for a long time. This year, the locusts attack is the worst in 26 years,” an official at the Faridabad-based Locust Warning Organisation (LWO) told PTI.

The official said there is a coordinated effort to contain the locust spread. Earlier, locusts have been confined to Rajasthan and Gujarat.