Pandemic, a super cyclone and now locust attacks. India is in an environmental and agrarian quandary.

Armies of locusts are swarming across Western India in alarming numbers, through farmlands and urban settlements, destroying any patch of green they can find on their way.

The first swarms of these desert locusts, the most devastating variety to come from the grasshopper family entered India along the India-Pakistan border around April 11, months before their usual time of arrival. And in the last few days they have been spotted in huge numbers in Rajasthan

They are also active in Gujarat and other states they’ve not been sighted in before like Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

So, what kind of damage can these pests bring, what measures are we taking to control the outbreak? And what kind of environmental changes have triggered this untimely, unusually big swarm of locusts to attack India? Tune in to The Big Story!

Producer and Host: Shorbori Purkayastha Guests: Manoj Ahirwar, Agricultural scientist at the Krishi Vigyaan Kendra in Madhya Pradesh Dr Roxy Matthew Koll, Climate scientist

Editor: Shelly Walia

References: Locust Watch

Locust swarm: UN warns of food crisis in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Somalia A new concern: early locusts India’s Worst Locust Attack in 26 Yrs: What Does This Threat Mean? India’s Second Plague: Locusts

Music: Big Bang Fuzz

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Release date

Audiobook: 27 May 2020