Andrew Buncombe joins Mumbai’s hardy army of 44 pest controllers with the task of exterminating the city’s 88 million rats
Mr Ubhare is among a 44-strong team that represents the frontline in the battle against an estimated 88m rats besieging India’s largest metropolis. Every night he and his colleagues endure filthy conditions and the risk of disease to kill rats with nothing more than a metal-tipped stick and a torch. Should they fail to meet their quota of 30 rodents by the time the sun comes up, they have 24 hours to make up the shortfall or lose a day’s pay.
Yet these rat catchers – deemed essential by the city authorities and recently the subject of a documentary shown at Cannes – are under threat. Animal rights activists want to put an end to the rat-killing, saying it is inhumane. Officials say the matter it is being considered.
Sometimes it seems rats are everywhere in Mumbai. They scurry in the quiet, tree-lined streets of Colaba and pause late at night on the platform at Churchgate station as the last, weary commuters make their way home to the suburbs. The damp, cramped conditions, with rubbish and litter strewn in the streets, creates an ideal environment for vermin and a report earlier this year estimated the rat population was growing annually by 10 per cent. Slum areas such as Dharavi and Govandi are said to be home to the most.
The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (BMC) employs various ways of tackling the issue, including traps and poison, but insists that the night rat killers (NRK) play an essential role. Yogesh Naik, an official with the sanitation department, said he only wishes there were more.
“We only have 44 rat killers. They can cover from Churchgate to Dadar. We’d like to enlarge the area we cover. We need 200 to cover the whole city,” he said, saying that they were currently filling 92 more positions. “The problem is red tape.”
If all 44 met quota 365 days per year, they would reduce the rat population by 0.5%, assuming the rats didn’t breed. Hardly seems worth the effort.
You can’t help but think that with proper traps and well trained dogs (full-grown rats can kill cats, so you need hunting dogs), they could increase that number by tenfold versus the hoe-and-flashlight method that my great grandmother used to get rid of rattlesnakes in the Old West.
A Kel Tec PMR-30 with an Eotech XPS2.0 should work quite well.
http://www.keltecweapons.com/uploaded_files/ourguns/gallery/b_15d179e7dd7ca525dc1c44dda16dcdf9PMR4.jpg
Removing food sources by cleaning the place up should kill most of them. As Bob says, trying to kill individual rats has no effect.
The solution starts with 88 million cobras…or maybe 88 million Indian rupees and a declaration of a bounty of one rupee per rat head. With a population of over 12 million (they can’t all be Brahmins!) it should not take very long at all.
Maybe I could get Mumbai to sponsor me on a hunt for them. I’ll talk with Safari Club about establishing records. I’ll video the whole thing, and get my own TV show! Bombay Safaris. Starring Gamecock! Sounds good, doesn’t it?
Look for me on the Outdoor Channel Monday nights!
Right after all the guys who pay $8,000 to shoot grossly over populated doves in Argentina.
A bounty of maybe 55 Rupees per each rat might have some effect. Cheaper than an outbreak of typhus.
At that price, some might start raising them.
My new reality show: Bombay Rat Farmers. On RFDTV at 6 AM.