The attack of the desert locust used to occur earlier in a phases of plague cycles (a period of more than two consecutive years of wide-spread breeding, swarm production and thereby damaging of crops is called a plague period) followed by a period of 1-8 years of very little locust activity called as the recession period again to be followed by another spell of plague. India witnessed several locust plague and locust upsurges and incursions during last two centuries as indicated below:
Locust plagues observed during different years
| Locust plagues observed during following years | |
| 1812-1821 | 1900-1907 |
| 1843-1844 | 1912-1920 |
| 1863-1867 | 1926-1930 |
| 1869-1873 | 1940-1946 |
| 1876-1881 | 1949-1955 |
| 1889-1891 | 1959-1962 |
Locust upsurges observed during different years
| Locust upsurges observed | |
| Year | No. of swarms incursion |
|---|---|
| 1964 | 004 |
| 1968 | 167 |
| 1970 | 002 |
| 1973 | 006 |
| 1974 | 006 |
| 1975 | 019 |
| 1976 | 002 |
| 1978 | 020 |
| 1983 | 026 |
| 1986 | 003 |
| 1989 | 015 |
| 1993 | 172 |
| 1997 | 004 |
| 2019 | 276 |
| 2020 | 103 |
Small scale localized locust breeding have also been reported and controlled during the period 1998, 2002, 2005 , 2007 and 2010. Since 2010 till 2018, situation remained calm and no large scale breeding and swarms incursion have been reported. However, solitary phase of Desert locust has been reported from time to time at some locations in the State of Rajasthan and Gujarat during routine desert locust surveys.