Satisfied with secretary’s comments, SHC disposes of petition for action against locusts

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday directed the agriculture department to ensure that all possible measures would be continued against the locust attacks in the province.

The direction came on a petition seeking aerial and ground spray operations to kill the locusts in the agricultural areas of the province. The petitioner, Syed Mureed Ali Shah, submitted in the petition that the first generation of locusts in Balochistan could not be controlled by the respondent authority and now the second and third generations had invaded several districts of the province causing extensive damage to the crops. He submitted that locusts had now entered heavily cultivated areas where they were eating various crops, including wheat, vegetables, sugar cane and plants grown for the grazing of livestock animals, but the relevant federal and provincial authorities had failed to spray insecticides to kill the locusts.

The high court was requested to direct the federal and provincial governments to carry out ground and aerial spray to kill the locusts without any further delay.

The agriculture secretary filed comments with regard to the progress in spray operations against the locusts. He submitted that the areas affected by locusts were Sukkur (Saleh Pat desert), Ghotki desert, Khairpur Nara desert, Tharparkar, Umerkot desert areas, Sanghar (Achro Thar desert), Shaheed Benazirabad, Naushero Feroz, Shikarpur, Mirpurkhas, Larkana and Badin.

He informed the court that spray was carried out at 6,546 acres and 57 teams were working in the locust-affected districts with 22 vehicles equipped with spray machines and pesticides. The SHC was informed that the total cultivated area where insecticides were sprayed was 60,112 acres and spray was carried out at a total of 6,546 acres on December 19.

The agriculture secretary submitted that the chief secretary had constituted a committee on July 24, 2019, to implement precautionary measures against the locust attack in the province and the government also released Rs16 million to the deputy commissioners of each districts to take anti-locust measures.

A division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar observed that efforts had been made to fight the locust invasion and the government was taking all necessary actions with sincere efforts to combat the infestation of locusts.

The court disposed of the petition with directions to the government to ensure that all possible combat measures would continue against locust attacks in Sindh.