No locust invasion spotted in any area of Punjab province in last 24 hours: NDMA

ISLAMABAD: The surveillance and spray teams of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) have not detected locust invasion in any district of Punjab in last 24 hours.

According to spokesman,the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has so far carried out poisonous fumes spray of over 623,000 hectare area under the locusts attack across the country.

Some 1,288 teams were engaged in locusts control operation being carried out in the affected districts.

They have treated over 6,800 hectares of area under locust attack in last 24 hours.

The surveillance of a total of 312,000 hectare of land has been carried out in last 24 hours.

The joint teams carried out both aerial and ground spray of 5,300 hectare area of Balochistan, 1,000 hectare area Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 500 hectare area of Sindh during the last 24 hours, he said.

The spokesman said a total of 40 districts, 29 of Balochistan, right of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, three of Sindh, had been hit by the locust swarms.

In Balochistan, Khuzdar, Awaran, Naushki, Chaghi, Gwadar, Athal, Ketch, Panjgur, Kharan, Vishk, Quetta and other districts have been hit by desert locust.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,Dera Ismael Khan, Tank, North and South Waziristan, Lakki Marvat, Kurram , Aurakzai and Khyber areas were affected with locust attacks. In Sindh, the affected areas included Shaheed Benazirabad, Mityari and Jamshoro.

Locusts were short-horned grasshoppers with highly migratory habits and voracious feeding behaviour. Their appearance is a new phenomenon.