by Faiqa Masoodi
SRINAGAR: In March, the Srinagar administration decided to make Astanpora village a Cherry Village. Three months later, it has been reduced to a millipede village and residents allege nobody is looking at them.
For the last four days, the residents said they have been literally invaded by insects, which get into their rooms in thousands. For most of the time, the men and women are busy dusting them away so that they do not contaminate their food or get into the ears and noses of the children.
“We visited a number of departments and everybody passed the buck,” one resident was heard telling a reporter.” Finally, a team of SKUAST arrived a prescribed an insecticide without offering any details about how to use it.”
Though the spray has mildly started impacting the numbers, the outbreak is far from being actually controlled.
The farming village gets additional income from labour and lacks the capacity to purchase costly insecticides.
Astanpora is in the city suburbs and falls in the Brain belt. It is a dusky village surrounded by a lot of plantations and has most part f the village perpetually in shadows.
Residents are literally insomniacs for the last four days as they remain on guard to prevent the entry of insects into their homes. They lack proper mechanical sprayers to manage the insecticide spray. Some of them said while spraying they got some throat infection as well as nobody has briefed them about the way it is to be sprayed.
Alleging that the SMC has not taken their pleas seriously and asked them to consult other departments, the residents said the Corporation has a number of mobile giant sprayers that they have been using in Covid19 in Lal Chowk. “Why cannot these machines be posted for some days till the outbreak is controlled,” one resident said. “Are not we human?”
Open-source information suggests that millipedes are inherently not poisonous and usually do not transmit any disease. However, some of them contain fluids that cause irritation or impact the skin. However, it is yet not known which species of millipedes have triggered the outbreak.
Millipede swarms are reported the world over. This major nuisance usually occurs when the conditions become too hot and dry and the millipedes move in search of moisture. Large numbers of them may congregate in wet areas such as around in-ground swimming pools where they may crawl (and fall) into the water.
Residents said these insects appear late in the afternoon and dominate the village till 9 am. During the hot day, they disappear.
