The Food and Agriculture Organization

MYUPSC.COM is dedicated to preparation of UPSC Civil Services and State PSC Prelims and Mains Examination 2020. we are providing here the best quality study material and Test Series for UPSC IAS Prelims and Mains Exam 2020. you can get India yearbook 2020 and State wise Current Affairs and General Knowledge Yearbook 2020. The site intends to provide free study notes, knowledge or information related to IAS/PCS exams that can help to crack these Examinations. The GRASP IAS has also published its Ebooks/ PDF on various aspects & dimensions of General Studies of World, India and all the Indian states. The vision of the Study Portal is to consolidate all the relevant information related to India, Indian States regarding its History, Geography, Polity, Art-Culture, Heritage, Economy, Environment & Biodiversity and Current Affairs etc. 

  • Join our Official Telegram Channel HERE for Motivation and Fast Updates

  • Subscribe to our YouTube Channel HERE to watch Motivational and New analysis videos

Current Affairs

UPSC Prelims 2021

Daily Current Affairs

IAS Prelims

IAS Exam 2020

IAS Mains

RPSC

Rajasthan

RAS Prelims

RAS Mains

Patwari Exam 2020

UPSC CSE 2020: 75 Days Crash Course to Maximise Prelims Score

UPSC Prelims 2020-21 Test Series

Test Series Prelims 2021

India @ glance

Download

FAO locust warning

India should remain on high alert against locust attack for the next four weeks, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned amid the country facing the worst locust attack in 26 years.

  1. Spring-bred locust swarms, which migrated to the Indo-Pakistan border and travelled east to northern states, are expected to return back to Rajasthan with the start of the monsoon in coming days.

The current locust attack (2019-2020) has been categorised as an upsurge.

Difference between a locust plague, upsurge and outbreak:

  1. Outbreak: If good rains fall and green vegetation develop, Desert Locust can rapidly increase in number and within a month or two, start to concentrate, gregarize which, unless checked, can lead to the formation of small groups or bands of wingless hoppers and small groups or swarms winged adults. This is called an OUTBREAK and usually occurs with an area of about 5,000 sq. km (100 km by 50 km) in one part of a country.
  2. Upsurge: If an outbreak or contemporaneous outbreaks are not controlled and if widespread or unusually heavy rains fall in adjacent areas, several successive seasons of breeding can occur that causes further hopper band and adult swarm formation. This is called an UPSURGE and generally affects an entire region.
  3. Plague: If an upsurge is not controlled and ecological conditions remain favourable for breeding, locust populations continue to increase in number and size, and the majority of the infestations occur as bands and swarms, then a PLAGUE can develop. A major plague exists when two or more regions are affected simultaneously.

Outbreaks are common, but only a few result in upsurges. Similarly, few upsurges lead to plagues. The last major plague was in 1987-89 and the last major upsurge was in 2003-05. Upsurges and plagues do not occur overnight; instead, they take many months to develop.

What are ‘desert locusts’?

Desert locusts (Schistocerca gregaria), which belong to the family of grasshoppers, normally live and breed in semi-arid or desert regions. For laying eggs, they require bare ground, which is rarely found in areas with dense vegetation.

How they form swarms?

As individuals, or in small isolated groups, locusts are not very dangerous. But when they grow into large populations their behaviour changes, they transform from ‘solitary phase’ into ‘gregarious phase’, and start forming ‘swarms’. A single swarm can contain 40 to 80 million adults in one square km, and these can travel up to 150 km a day.

Leave a Reply