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India is gearing up to fight a second invasion amid the coronavirus pandemic as a massive swarm of desert locusts threatens to destroy the nation's food supply.
The country is battling its worst swarm in almost 30 years and experts have grave fears it will push much of India into famine as the pests devastate crops.
The millions-strong swarm entered India around April 30 when the insects flew from neighbouring Pakistan into the northern state of Rajasthan.
READ MORE: Locust invasion wreaks havoc on Pakistan's crops and orchards
This May 10, 2020 photo shows locusts swarming over city and near by area in Ajmer, Rajasthan, India. Swarms of desert locusts have devastated crops in Indias heartland. (AP Photo/Deepak Sharma) (AP/AAP)
Since then the insects have invaded five other states and continue to devastate the vegetation.
Keith Cressman, Senior Locust Forecasting Officer for the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, told 9news.com.au the scale of agricultural damage is hard to determine at this stage as it depends on multiple factors.
The Food and Agricultural Organisation predicts locusts will reach as far as Nepal and Bangladesh. (Food and Agricultural Organisation)
Locusts rest on a tree in Quetta, Pakistan, Friday, June 12, 2020. (AP Photo/Arshad Butt) (AP/AAP)
"It is difficult to say with precision how the swarm will affect India's food supply," he said.
"It depends on the scale of invasion from spring breeding areas, the performance of this year's monsoon, and the effectiveness and success of monitoring and control operations."
Desert locusts are one of the most invasive species of locusts. Adults can fly up to 150km a day and eat their own body weight, two grams, of vegetation in 24 hours.
A man holds a desert locust in his hand on May 21, 2020 in Samburu County, Kenya. Trillions of locusts are also swarming across parts of Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, following an earlier infestation in February. (Photo by Fredrik Lerneryd/Getty Images) (Getty)
They also have the ability to multiply rapidly, which has led to a grim prediction from the FAO.
The FAO said there will be successive waves of invasions in Rajasthan until July, and swarms are expected to reach as far as Nepal and Bangladesh.
Mr Cressman said chemicals and biopesticides are being used by locust control teams to combat the invasion from the air and ground.
This grab made from Wednesday, May 27, 2020 video provided by KK Productions, shows locusts swarming over city and near by area in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India. (KK Production via AP) (AP/AAP)
Locusts, coronavirus increase risk of disease
The locust swarm comes as India continues to battle a surge in coronavirus cases.
With hospitals overwhelmed, train carriages are being converted into make-shift wards as the country passes 12,000 deaths.
Renowned virologist Dr T. Jacob John told 9news.com.au the outbreak is only going to get worse.
The driver of an ambulance returns after helping cremate the body of a woman who died of COVID-19 on a handcart for cremation in New Delhi, India, Thursday, May 28, 2020. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup) (AP/AAP)
A labour makes bedding inside a makeshift quarantine facility for patients diagnosed with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Mumbai, India, Friday, June 12, 2020.(AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool) (AP/AAP)
He believes both the country and the World Health Organisation (WHO) was too slow to label the outbreak a pandemic and enact a lockdown, which India entered on March 24.
"Rural outbreaks are just beginning to take off. There was obviously misjudgment on timing, extent of lockdown," he said.
"As life is getting a little relaxed, in mid-June the urban epidemics in big cities have peaked.
"The government did not realise that the Chinese epidemic had already become 'pandemic' by definition, not by WHO declaration, in late January or early February.
"Life continued normal until March 23 when the parliament was sitting; when some members came wearing masks I am told that the chair asked them to remove as there was no epidemic in India."
Indian farmers carry saplings in a paddy field in Hohora village, outskirts of Gauhati, India, Sunday, June 14, 2020. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath) (AP/AAP)
With the healthcare system at the brink and the nation's food supply under threat, Dr John warned more diseases could break out as people are pushed further into poverty and immunisations drop.
"Tuberculosis - people are worried of a huge outburst, with a backlog of three to four months," he said.
"Immunisations are low (for) diphtheria, whooping cough, measles, meningitis, pneumonia.
"Rotavirus diarrhoea, Japanese encephalitis, where it is prone, could become big problems and the discontinuation of OPV (oral polio vaccine) may result in a circulating vaccine-derived type 1 polio outbreak as happened in Papua New Guinea in 2018."
The body of a virus patient is taken from hospital to await cremation in New Delhi. (AP)
Also fuelling the health crisis is the fact that India doesn't have public universal healthcare, Dr John said.
"India was without the required defences when the pandemic struck," he said.
"This was already a crisis in 'normal' times for low income and rural Indians - some 80-65 per cent of people."
https://www.9news.com.au/world/indi...vastated/bd6b48ff-7efd-413b-89b1-c429bbba7846
The country is battling its worst swarm in almost 30 years and experts have grave fears it will push much of India into famine as the pests devastate crops.
The millions-strong swarm entered India around April 30 when the insects flew from neighbouring Pakistan into the northern state of Rajasthan.
READ MORE: Locust invasion wreaks havoc on Pakistan's crops and orchards
This May 10, 2020 photo shows locusts swarming over city and near by area in Ajmer, Rajasthan, India. Swarms of desert locusts have devastated crops in Indias heartland. (AP Photo/Deepak Sharma) (AP/AAP)
Since then the insects have invaded five other states and continue to devastate the vegetation.
Keith Cressman, Senior Locust Forecasting Officer for the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, told 9news.com.au the scale of agricultural damage is hard to determine at this stage as it depends on multiple factors.
The Food and Agricultural Organisation predicts locusts will reach as far as Nepal and Bangladesh. (Food and Agricultural Organisation)
Locusts rest on a tree in Quetta, Pakistan, Friday, June 12, 2020. (AP Photo/Arshad Butt) (AP/AAP)
"It is difficult to say with precision how the swarm will affect India's food supply," he said.
"It depends on the scale of invasion from spring breeding areas, the performance of this year's monsoon, and the effectiveness and success of monitoring and control operations."
Desert locusts are one of the most invasive species of locusts. Adults can fly up to 150km a day and eat their own body weight, two grams, of vegetation in 24 hours.
A man holds a desert locust in his hand on May 21, 2020 in Samburu County, Kenya. Trillions of locusts are also swarming across parts of Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, following an earlier infestation in February. (Photo by Fredrik Lerneryd/Getty Images) (Getty)
They also have the ability to multiply rapidly, which has led to a grim prediction from the FAO.
The FAO said there will be successive waves of invasions in Rajasthan until July, and swarms are expected to reach as far as Nepal and Bangladesh.
Mr Cressman said chemicals and biopesticides are being used by locust control teams to combat the invasion from the air and ground.
This grab made from Wednesday, May 27, 2020 video provided by KK Productions, shows locusts swarming over city and near by area in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India. (KK Production via AP) (AP/AAP)
Locusts, coronavirus increase risk of disease
The locust swarm comes as India continues to battle a surge in coronavirus cases.
With hospitals overwhelmed, train carriages are being converted into make-shift wards as the country passes 12,000 deaths.
Renowned virologist Dr T. Jacob John told 9news.com.au the outbreak is only going to get worse.
The driver of an ambulance returns after helping cremate the body of a woman who died of COVID-19 on a handcart for cremation in New Delhi, India, Thursday, May 28, 2020. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup) (AP/AAP)
A labour makes bedding inside a makeshift quarantine facility for patients diagnosed with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Mumbai, India, Friday, June 12, 2020.(AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool) (AP/AAP)
He believes both the country and the World Health Organisation (WHO) was too slow to label the outbreak a pandemic and enact a lockdown, which India entered on March 24.
"Rural outbreaks are just beginning to take off. There was obviously misjudgment on timing, extent of lockdown," he said.
"As life is getting a little relaxed, in mid-June the urban epidemics in big cities have peaked.
"The government did not realise that the Chinese epidemic had already become 'pandemic' by definition, not by WHO declaration, in late January or early February.
"Life continued normal until March 23 when the parliament was sitting; when some members came wearing masks I am told that the chair asked them to remove as there was no epidemic in India."
Indian farmers carry saplings in a paddy field in Hohora village, outskirts of Gauhati, India, Sunday, June 14, 2020. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath) (AP/AAP)
With the healthcare system at the brink and the nation's food supply under threat, Dr John warned more diseases could break out as people are pushed further into poverty and immunisations drop.
"Tuberculosis - people are worried of a huge outburst, with a backlog of three to four months," he said.
"Immunisations are low (for) diphtheria, whooping cough, measles, meningitis, pneumonia.
"Rotavirus diarrhoea, Japanese encephalitis, where it is prone, could become big problems and the discontinuation of OPV (oral polio vaccine) may result in a circulating vaccine-derived type 1 polio outbreak as happened in Papua New Guinea in 2018."
The body of a virus patient is taken from hospital to await cremation in New Delhi. (AP)
Also fuelling the health crisis is the fact that India doesn't have public universal healthcare, Dr John said.
"India was without the required defences when the pandemic struck," he said.
"This was already a crisis in 'normal' times for low income and rural Indians - some 80-65 per cent of people."
https://www.9news.com.au/world/indi...vastated/bd6b48ff-7efd-413b-89b1-c429bbba7846
