– Whitefly destroys 2/3rd of Punjab’s cotton crop, 15 farmers commit suicide:
BATHINDA: “It was just like the Japanese air strike in the film, Pearl Harbour,” said Naresh Kumar Lehri, a seed and pesticide dealer at Singho village in Punjab’s Bathinda district. “They appeared out of nowhere and left a trail of destruction.”
Lehri was referring to the devastating attack by whitefly, a common pest, on the cotton crop in Punjab’s Malwa region this year. It has affected about two-thirds of standing cotton crop in the state, causing an estimated loss of Rs 4,200 crore.