The 2019-2020 time span is proving to be one of the most trying time spans in recent history. First, there were the wildfires in Australia, then the spread of COVID-19, soon followed by news of murder hornets. Through all of these events, drones have been called upon to help alleviate the strain from these unusual circumstances. In February of 2020, the United Nations declares that the Horn of Africa was in a state of national emergency due to an unprecedented outbreak of locust. Somalia and Ethiopia were seeing the largest locust infestation in 25 years, and for neighboring Kenya it was the worst outbreak in 70 years. Once again, drones were used to help save the day.

Desert locust can grow up to 4 inches long and live in swarms of up to 150 million insects. The fast moving swarms can travel close to 100 miles a day, devouring all vegetation in sight. Even a small swarm of locust can consume in a single day enough food for 35,000 people. For the nations of the Horn of Africa, which already has a hard enough time feeding its people, this outbreak could have been beyond devastating. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reached out to the world asking for help in combating the locust swarms, that if left untreated could quickly grow in size 500 times and spread through the continent, possibly even beyond. The FAO received help in funding to deploy drones to combat the swarm.

It is critical to monitor the movements of the swarm and simultaneously spray with insecticides. However, being able to fly a plane to do this is not always reliable. Due to unstable security situations and the extreme costs of manned aircraft, flying a plane over Somalia wasn’t even an option. Drones were brought in to be able to adequately track the movements of the swarm, giving researchers a way to build predictive models of where the swarm was headed. Once this was in place drones and trucks were used to spray both adult and larval stages of the locust to prevent further infestation. Unfortunately, what the UN feared happening, the swarms moving beyond the borders of Africa, did happen.

The swarms invaded Pakistan prompting a statewide emergency due to the devastation being left in their wake. The FAO reported that nearly 38% of Pakistan had become a breeding ground for the locust. Shortly thereafter, the swarms spread to India where more than 50,000 hectares of desert areas in western India have been affected. The worst damage being in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat. “We are battling a major locust attack from across the border. This is the biggest invasion in nearly three decades. The swarms are very big and they have migrated from across the border after breeding a month earlier than we were expecting,” KL Gurjar, deputy director of India’s Locust Warning Organization said.

Luckily, India is not currently in the harvest season. If it was harvest time, the locust would be surely be consuming the crops of the second-largest producer of wheat and rice in the world. To prevent the locust swarms from moving onward and surviving to the harvest season, India has undertaken an aggressive attack plan. They are using one helicopter to help coordinate ground workers, trucks, and drones. Wearing protective clothing, ground workers with pesticide spray tanks walk through fields. Trucks with large pesticide tanks follows along to supply them with the needed chemicals. The government has also approved the use of 12 drones to track and spray the swarms.

Drones play a critical part in tracking the swarms so that authorities can make treatment plans. Seeing the need for rapid action, India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation made amendments to drone regulations. The Ministry has granted permission to the Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine, and Storage (DPPQS) to use third party drone operators to see that drone operations can be carried out as soon as possible. This also meant that the DPPQS can coordinate flights without awaiting approval for individual missions. Another amendment made has been that drones can be used to track and treat the locust at nighttime. Officials believe that being able to use the drones at night, something that is usually not permitted in India, will give them the needed advantage over the spread of the swarm.

With vigilance, relaxed drone laws, and an increase in drone numbers, India has been able to see some promising results in the battle against this latest locust outbreak. Initial reports show that nearly 70% of the locust swarms have been eliminated. Though there is still a long way to go in fully eradicating the infestation, drones have clearly been of great assistance in getting ahead of the problem.