New Delhi, May 30 -- The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations said on Friday that it may declare the locust invasion a plague if it takes a turn for the worse after breeding by the voracious, crop-crunching insects in India, Pakistan and West Africa.
FAO now categorises the locust invasion that has reached India as an "upsurge". Swarms of desert locusts have chomped through vegetation and crops across farm lands in Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
The Locust Warning Organisation (LWO) sprayed Malathion 96 and Chlorpyrifos, both organophosphate pesticides, to control the locust swarms across states. Both are extremely toxic and high level of exposure to the pesticides ma...