It was an ordinary morning for banker Ankur Parekh until he saw a swarm of brown desert locusts blanket the dawn skies in the capital city of India’s western state of Rajasthan this week.
The 36-year-old walked to his balcony on Tuesday morning to an astonishing sight – a roaring blizzard of insects invading parts of Jaipur city in their hundreds of thousands.
"It felt like doomsday," Mr Parekh told The National. "It was terrifying. I felt like I was in a sci-fi movie. They were everywhere."
Mr Parekh quickly ran inside his room as people banged metal kitchenware and set off firecrackers to drive the pests from trees and houses, a desperate method used by many residents in a state that has been battling a locust scourge for weeks.
India is in the grip of the worst desert locust outbreak in nearly three decades as huge swarms of the crop-munching insects reached the country through Pakistan from East Africa in April, posing a serious threat to crops.
Officials said at least 10 large pest swarms, each spread over a square kilometre, destroyed more than 50,000 hectares of farmland in two Indian states, making it the worst plague since 1993.
Locusts, which are from the grasshopper family, can fly up to 150 kilometres a day, and a square-kilometre swarm can eat as much food as 35,000 people in a single day, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.
The authorities say the migratory insects make their way into India every year between July to October but blame the oversized invasion to mass breeding and a failure to halt their movement as they passed through neighbouring countries.
"There is a mobilisation in the Horn of Africa, the Middle East, Iran, Saudi Arabia… locusts are widely prevalent and multiplying in these countries," K L Gurjar, deputy director at India's Locust Warning Organisation, told The National.
“We are expecting the swarm to continue because these are coming from Pakistan and moving from spring breeding to summer breeding areas,” he said.
Last year, about 25,000 hectares of cropland were destroyed during a similar off-season attack that lasted until December.
At least 18 districts in Rajasthan have seen standing crops and trees destroyed in recent weeks as wind direction and speed push the pests deeper into India’s key agricultural states of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
Smaller swarms are active in the western states of Gujarat and Maharashtra.
Some swarms have ventured into cities and towns due to wind patterns, devouring bushes, plants and trees as the authorities use drones, tractors and firefighting vehicles to chase the insects and spray pesticide.
Many farmers in Uttar Pradesh have installed sound systems to play loud music in a bid to ward locusts off fields. Police in affected areas blast sirens and hooters.
The Indian agriculture ministry has issued advisories and stepped up efforts to control the menace as it poses threat to the livelihood of farmers already reeling under severe damage due to an ongoing nationwide lockdown against coronavirus.
Scientists believe the massive outbreak is a possible outcome of unusually warm weather and rains in the Indian subcontinent that is currently reeling under a severe heatwave with temperatures hitting 50°C in parts of west India.
Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist, said the earlier outbreak was possibly a result of heavy rains late last year due to the warm water in the Indian ocean.
"Heavy rain triggers the growth of vegetation in arid areas where desert locusts can then grow and breed," Mr Koll told The National.
Many farmers and experts have criticised government slow response to the crises and demanded that the authorities declare an emergency to deal with the menace.
Devinder Sharma, an agriculture and trade policy expert, said the farmers are under tremendous stress due to the lockdown and locusts are dealing a double blow to them.
“Locusts leave destruction worse than drought, not only are the crops destroyed but even trees collapse under their weight,” Mr Sharma said.
The FAO says the best control mechanism is to spray breeding sites and monitor for smaller bands before they become mobile flying swarms able to move rapidly across large areas devouring crops.
Once this happens, however, using pesticides from the ground and air can help kill off the locusts and halt their ravenous rampage.
COMPANY PROFILE
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Core42
Current number of staff: 47
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
The Beach Bum
Director: Harmony Korine
Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Isla Fisher, Snoop Dogg
Two stars
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Results:
Men's wheelchair 800m T34: 1. Walid Ktila (TUN) 1.44.79; 2. Mohammed Al Hammadi (UAE) 1.45.88; 3. Isaac Towers (GBR) 1.46.46.
THE SPECS – Honda CR-V Touring AWD
Engine: 2.4-litre 4-cylinder
Power: 184hp at 6,400rpm
Torque: 244Nm at 3,900rpm
Transmission: Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT)
0-100kmh in 9.4 seconds
Top speed: 202kmh
Fuel consumption: 6.8L/100km
Price: From Dh122,900
THE DETAILS
Kaala
Dir: Pa. Ranjith
Starring: Rajinikanth, Huma Qureshi, Easwari Rao, Nana Patekar
Rating: 1.5/5
Copa del Rey final
Sevilla v Barcelona, Saturday, 11.30pm (UAE), match on Bein Sports
Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
Price: From Dh126,000
Available: Now
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
Jeff Buckley: From Hallelujah To The Last Goodbye
By Dave Lory with Jim Irvin
Palestine and Israel - live updates
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Bib%20Gourmand%20restaurants
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Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Arsenal's pre-season fixtures
Thursday Beat Sydney 2-0 in Sydney
Saturday v Western Sydney Wanderers in Sydney
Wednesday v Bayern Munich in Shanghai
July 22 v Chelsea in Beijing
July 29 v Benfica in London
July 30 v Sevilla in London
PULITZER PRIZE 2020 WINNERS
JOURNALISM
Public Service
Anchorage Daily News in collaboration with ProPublica
Breaking News Reporting
Staff of The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.
Investigative Reporting
Brian M. Rosenthal of The New York Times
Explanatory Reporting
Staff of The Washington Post
Local Reporting
Staff of The Baltimore Sun
National Reporting
T. Christian Miller, Megan Rose and Robert Faturechi of ProPublica
and
Dominic Gates, Steve Miletich, Mike Baker and Lewis Kamb of The Seattle Times
International Reporting
Staff of The New York Times
Feature Writing
Ben Taub of The New Yorker
Commentary
Nikole Hannah-Jones of The New York Times
Criticism
Christopher Knight of the Los Angeles Times
Editorial Writing
Jeffery Gerritt of the Palestine (Tx.) Herald-Press
Editorial Cartooning
Barry Blitt, contributor, The New Yorker
Breaking News Photography
Photography Staff of Reuters
Feature Photography
Channi Anand, Mukhtar Khan and Dar Yasin of the Associated Press
Audio Reporting
Staff of This American Life with Molly O’Toole of the Los Angeles Times and Emily Green, freelancer, Vice News for “The Out Crowd”
LETTERS AND DRAMA
Fiction
"The Nickel Boys" by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)
Drama
"A Strange Loop" by Michael R. Jackson
History
"Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America" by W. Caleb McDaniel (Oxford University Press)
Biography
"Sontag: Her Life and Work" by Benjamin Moser (Ecco/HarperCollins)
Poetry
"The Tradition" by Jericho Brown (Copper Canyon Press)
General Nonfiction
"The Undying: Pain, Vulnerability, Mortality, Medicine, Art, Time, Dreams, Data, Exhaustion, Cancer, and Care" by Anne Boyer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
and
"The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America" by Greg Grandin (Metropolitan Books)
Music
"The Central Park Five" by Anthony Davis, premiered by Long Beach Opera on June 15, 2019
Special Citation
Ida B. Wells
Bharatanatyam
A ancient classical dance from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Intricate footwork and expressions are used to denote spiritual stories and ideas.
Why are asylum seekers being housed in hotels?
The number of asylum applications in the UK has reached a new record high, driven by those illegally entering the country in small boats crossing the English Channel.
A total of 111,084 people applied for asylum in the UK in the year to June 2025, the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001.
Asylum seekers and their families can be housed in temporary accommodation while their claim is assessed.
The Home Office provides the accommodation, meaning asylum seekers cannot choose where they live.
When there is not enough housing, the Home Office can move people to hotels or large sites like former military bases.
ARGENTINA SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Franco Armani, Agustin Marchesin, Esteban Andrada
Defenders: Juan Foyth, Nicolas Otamendi, German Pezzella, Nicolas Tagliafico, Ramiro Funes Mori, Renzo Saravia, Marcos Acuna, Milton Casco
Midfielders: Leandro Paredes, Guido Rodriguez, Giovani Lo Celso, Exequiel Palacios, Roberto Pereyra, Rodrigo De Paul, Angel Di Maria
Forwards: Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero, Lautaro Martinez, Paulo Dybala, Matias Suarez
How much do leading UAE’s UK curriculum schools charge for Year 6?
- Nord Anglia International School (Dubai) – Dh85,032
- Kings School Al Barsha (Dubai) – Dh71,905
- Brighton College Abu Dhabi - Dh68,560
- Jumeirah English Speaking School (Dubai) – Dh59,728
- Gems Wellington International School – Dubai Branch – Dh58,488
- The British School Al Khubairat (Abu Dhabi) - Dh54,170
- Dubai English Speaking School – Dh51,269
*Annual tuition fees covering the 2024/2025 academic year
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
THREE
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In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
Zayed Sustainability Prize
