Photo via CCTV

A Chinese working group is carrying out a field survey of desert locust swarm attacks in the stricken areas of Bakka in Pakistan’s Punjab province. The locust attacks are worse than we have expected as the swarms are entering into a mating stage, said Chinese experts in an interview.

The plague of desert locusts in East Africa and South Asia has lasted several months, with its influence continuing to expand. In Pakistan, the locust attacks have wrought havoc on the agricultural production in many provinces.

"What we saw in the previous two days was mainly the damage caused by locusts in the desert steppes. Today, the Pakistani government took us to this agricultural land to see the loss in agriculture. Visually estimated, the density of the swarms is still relatively high," said Wang Zhuoran from the Ecological Restoration Office of China National Forestry and Grassland Administration.

Wang Tongwei, deputy-chief from the Plant Protection Station in Eastern China’s Shandong province, said that compared to the East Asian migratory locusts common in China, the desert locusts in this plague are larger in size, more aggressive, and can severely damage the ecosystem.

(Compiled by Zhang Yuanzheng)