Mumbai: Over 16 lakh rats killed in last five years, claims BMC

To curb the rats or rodent population in the city, BMC has killed 16 lakh rodents in the last five years who cause diseases like leptospirosis and plague. According to BMC data, the civic body's pesticide department has killed 1,69,596 rats in the last six months.

BMC's health department takes all the efforts to curb monsoon-related diseases like leptospirosis, plague, H1N1, Gastro, hepatitis and Dengue.

Along with the health department, the pesticides department also takes efforts to curb these diseases. Apart from the BMC employees, the civic body has appointed 14 private agencies to kill rats in Mumbai. BMC pays Rs. 22 behind each rat that is killed.

Before monsoon, BMC runs four to five campaigns to kill rats in the city. Normally, rats are killed using toxic aluminium phosphide.

According to Rajendra Naringrekar, an officer of the Pesticide department, "The productivity of rats is large in numbers. Outsource agencies submit their daily count to ward-level officers in the morning. Our main target is to curb plague because leptospirosis spreads through other animals too. Mumbai has a history."

BMC has appealed to citizens not to keep scrap in residence. Keep your area clean and don't throw eatable items on the open site so rats will not come.