Pied pipers
This army of BMC fights rodents in the dead of the night
Nine crore rats have invaded the island city, reveals a recent survey by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). But Mumbaikars don’t get rattled. There is an army of 45 BMC men-known as Night Rat Catchers (NRCs)-battling to contain the rat menace.
Every night, between 11.30 pm and 3 am, when we are tucked snugly in our beds, they step out on the city roads to do what could be the world’s most unassuming job—to kill rats.
Dressed in khaki uniforms, armed with a long stick in one hand and a torch in another, these Pied Pipers of Mumbai have mastered the art of hunting and killing the disease-spreading rodents. At first, their job looks simple: Searching through city drains for any movement, then quietly waiting to sight a rodent. Then when the creature emerges, they blind it with their torch and strike with the stick- within split seconds-killing it almost immediately.
Says Deepak Adsul, Insecticide Officer of the BMC, “It is a daunting task and is really spell-binding to see how the NRCs carry out the operation. With the help of these heroes we aim to bring down the rat infestation rate by 85 per cent.”
For a job that needs precision, stealthiness as well as strong nerves (for it’s not so easy to take a life, after all), the NRCs have a rather paltry remuneration. Deadline bound, they must kill 30 rats every night to earn the daily wage of Rs 260. If they miss this count, their pay is held back till they compensate. But yes, if their kill exceeds that target, they get an incentive too. Enough to keep them on toes all night.
Other methods the BMC uses to capture rats include, surface baiting, torpedo baiting, burrow fumigation, and mass trapping wherein several traps are laid in different localities as per residents’ complaints.
URL – http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=227386