Photos: The Locust Swarms of 2020

Alan Taylor
July 1, 2020
18 Photos
In Focus

Throughout the year, parts of East Africa have been suffering record-setting waves of locust swarms. In the past few months, even more swarms have dramatically struck parts of Yemen, Pakistan, and India. Farmers and communities are fearful of the damage to crops and rangeland, harming income and food supplies, all while dealing with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the swarms are the largest seen in several decades, and international efforts are being coordinated to combat the multiple swarms. Below are images from hard-hit areas in Kenya, Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Yemen, taken over recent months.

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Farmers try to scare away a swarm of locusts from a field on the outskirts of Sukkur in the southern Sindh province of Pakistan, on July 1, 2020. #

Shahid Ali / AFP / Getty

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Locusts rest on a tree in Quetta, Pakistan, on June 12, 2020. Pakistani officials say an outbreak of desert locusts is spreading across the country, posing a threat to food security. #

Arshad Butt / AP

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Swarms of locusts fly over a residential area in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta on June 12, 2020. #

Banaras Khan / AFP / Getty

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Swarms of locusts are seen over a residential area in the city of Hyderabad, in the southern Sindh province of Pakistan, on May 8, 2020. #

Shakeel Ahmed / Anadolu Agency / Getty

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Desert locusts strip a bush of its leaves near the town of Lodwar, Turkana County, Kenya, on June 30, 2020. #

Baz Ratner / Reuters

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A small airplane sprays a locust swarm that has been roosting over night in Samburu County, Kenya, on May 23, 2020. GPS coordinates are sent from trackers on the ground the evening before, when the locusts have settled down for the night. #

Fredrik Lerneryd / Getty

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Locusts start to fly in the morning hours after roosting in the trees overnight in Kenya's Samburu County on May 21, 2020. #

Fredrik Lerneryd / Getty

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Swarms of locusts gather atop a residential building in Jaipur, in the Indian state of Rajasthan, on May 25, 2020. #

Vishal Bhatnagar / AFP / Getty

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A farmer shows dead locusts found in his field at Badra Sonauti, a village on the outskirts of Allahabad, India, on June 10, 2020. Swarms currently plague large zones in the country. #

Sanjay Kanojia / AFP / Getty

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A resident tries to fend off swarms of locusts from a mango tree in a residential area of Jaipur in the Indian state of Rajasthan, on May 25, 2020. #

Vishal Bhatnagar / AFP / Getty

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A man takes pictures of locusts swarming over a residential area of Allahabad, India on June 11, 2020. #

Sanjay Kanojia / AFP / Getty

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A locust sits on a tree in Narwar, a village in the Indian state of Rajasthan on June 15, 2020. #

Sourabh Vyas / Anadolu Agency / Getty

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Locusts cluster on the branches of a tree in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta on June 12, 2020. #

Banaras Khan / AFP / Getty

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Swarms of locusts fly over Quetta on June 26, 2020. #

Banaras Khan / AFP / Getty

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In Dhamar, Yemen, locusts fly as they move through the Arabian Peninsula on June 7, 2020. #

Mohammed Hamoud / Anadolu Agency / Getty

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Goats walk as a locust swarm flies near the town of Lodwar, in Turkana County, Kenya, on June 28, 2020. #

Baz Ratner / Reuters

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A man chases away a swarm of desert locusts early in the morning on May 21, 2020, in Samburu County, Kenya. #

Fredrik Lerneryd / Getty

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A crow drops a locust as it flies over Kathmandu, Nepal, on June 30, 2020. #

Navesh Chitrakar / Reuters

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