India Will Use Drones To Fight Locust Swarms, As DGCA Issues Clearance

Recently, India has had a serious locust problem. Swarms of desert locusts were spotted in the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and even Uttar Pradesh.

And authorities are trying hard to deal with this natural mayhem.

Reuters

The locusts in India, however, are flying at heights greater than their basic nature. To effectively take them down, Union Minister for agriculture Kailash Chowdhary requested DGCA to help the government with planes.

Rajasthan government is also considering tenders for drones to take down the menacing locusts.

DGCA granted a conditional exemption to the agriculture ministry within 24 hours of the request. It states, ¡°In view of the urgency of the matter, the Government of India, in exercise of powers conferred under Rule 160 of the Aircraft Rules, 1937, provides ¡°conditional exemption¡± to Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare,¡± according to the order.

The civil aviation ministry¡¯s conditional exemption is applicable only for rotary wing drones not exceeding 25 kg.

Racerfly/Reuters

According to a government official in conversation with ETTech, ¡°This is unprecedented for India since it¡¯s the first time we¡¯ve allowed drones to carry payloads in a civilian use case, or spray any pesticides for that matter. There have been some trials for crop spraying using drones, but those were strictly restricted to specific zones. In this exemption, the agriculture ministry can fly drones anywhere.¡±

In case you didn¡¯t know, Locusts are insects originating from the family of grasshoppers. They¡¯re essentially known to be solitary creatures and mind their own business. While they¡¯re normally not dangerous, in certain climatic and environmental conditions they experience rise in serotonin levels and start breeding in exceeding numbers forming large swarms.

Reuters

Normally, locusts are known to swarm up in large fields in rural areas. However, now people have also spotted them for the first time in residential areas of the city.

Locusts in large numbers are known to cause severe damage to standing crops, completely obliterating the yield and causing severe losses to farmers. However, this time, luckily the losses aren¡¯t much.

B.R. Karwa, project director, Agricultural Technology Management Agency said in a statement to TOI, ¡°As there are no standing crops in the fields, there is no loss in this season. However, we are adopting newer measures to check any loss in the coming seasons."