Kolkata gnawed up by rats; old buildings and bridges under threat

Kolkata has been witnessing a rat menace, reported The Indian Express.

Rats have so far infested much of the city, from the slums and eateries in south and central Kolkata to the colonial-era buildings of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and the Vidhan Sabha at Esplanade, chewing through the concrete bases of at least two flyovers and gnawing at underground sewerage and cable lines.

The government is concerned about the threat, and the Trinamool Congress-run KMC is looking for solutions. It has launched awareness campaigns about proper waste disposal, turned to temporary fixes, and contacted its counterparts in other states for advice on how to get rid of the rats.

“We do not know about the population (of rats), but the effects are visible every day. Our sewerage lines, underground cables, and electricity wires are getting damaged,” Kolkata Mayor and Trinamool leader Firhad Hakim told the publication.

According to KMC officials, the worst-affected areas are the slum areas of Dhakuria and Bhabanipore in south Kolkata as well as central Kolkata, where footpaths are lined with eateries that serve the office crowd.

The Dhakuria Bridge area is also witnessing one of the worst rat infestations. Plaster pieces have reportedly fallen off the bridge, according to those who live in the slums beneath. 

The KMC was informed of the sinking of the Dhakuria Bridge flyover road two years ago. Hakim stated that the road was reinforced with concrete; however, the problem remained. Huge underground rat holes were discovered later, and then the exact problem causing the subsidence was understood. Mayor Hakim also blamed the “illegal squatters” and “roadside eateries that usually throw waste food on the road" as one of the major causes of the 'rat' problem.

Rats have reportedly damaged the AJC Bose flyover in south Kolkata, digging through and loosening the soil around the foundation, according to KMC sources.

The corporation has been filling holes on footpaths, roads, and bridge walls with a mixture of concrete, sand, and glass shards as there is no apparent solution in sight and no precedent to fall back on.

“We mixed glass shards and sand grains with concrete and used that to fill up holes made by rats on the walls and pillars of flyovers. We hope this mix will restrict their movement, though we have no proof yet if it is working,” said Deputy Mayor Atin Ghosh.

Ghosh stated that the KMC has also been launching awareness campaigns for roadside eateries and restaurants, pleading with them to refrain from throwing food outside and warning them of legal action if they still continue such practices.

Mayor Hakim claimed that the KMC had requested assistance from the Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) "sometime back." But they were unable to assist in finding a solution, he added.

Although the BMC officials did not confirm receiving such a letter from their Kolkata counterparts, they did state that the war against rats is ongoing.

Rat sightings have become quite frequent in Kolkata. A colony of rats has infested the ground near one of the pillars of the Dhakuria Bridge, an aging four-lane flyover in Ballygunge with a rail line running underneath connecting Gariahut to Jadavpur.

Slums, shacks, and restaurants can be found under the flyover and on either side of the railroad tracks. Their waste can be found there as well as on the tracks.

Rats have been eating this bridge like "it was a cake", said Sonia Mondol, 25, who lives in the slums beneath it, as she sat on the Sealdah-Budge Budge railway line. The bridge's damaged sections keep falling off every day, she added.

Along with the slum areas of south Kolkata’s Dhakuria, the Bhabanipore area also suffers from worst rat infestations .

Pintu Shaw, a 28-year-old hawker at the AJC Bose flyover and the close-by Nizam Palace, two locations that Hakim noted as being rat-infested, claimed that it was impossible to work there, as the rats there come and nibble on thier toes. The PWD came and fixed the footpath, but a month later the holes reappeared, he added.

The oil and fat from the food stick to the walls of the underground drains, according to Asim Basu, ward 70 councilor, who claimed that restaurants throw leftovers. Rats damage the concrete walls of the drain by eating and nibbling through them.

This rat problem has also severely infested the KMC headquarters and the Assembly building in the Esplanade area.

Rats were present throughout the KMC, with the server room being the worst-hit, according to a KMC official. The wires and equipment there had been chewed on by the rats. Additionally, the rats kept causing electrical wire damage in the control room.

Since the company installed a "RODENT" machine in the server room two months ago, according to a senior IT official at the KMC things have been a little "quieter". 

According to the official, the device produces sound waves at a very high frequency that deter rats.

Speaker Biman claimed that he had personally observed rats inside the Assembly building. 

We do not want to kill the rats with poison because the stench will be intolerable. We have discussed this with the Public Works Department and are waiting to see what can possibly be done. 

A senior official said, “Here in the Assembly, I must say rats are the only creatures that are neutral. They trouble both the ruling party as well as the Opposition. Rats have eaten food in Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari’s room and they have damaged papers in the Speaker’s room.”

Rats are everywhere, but experts agree that they are difficult to eradicate and even more difficult to count.

It is true that there is almost no information or research on the rat population for the city of Kolkata, according to Mukesh Thakur, head of the mammals division at the Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata. We can potentially look into any requests KMC sends our way, he added.

The common brown rat, Rattus norvegicus, with a maximum body length of 6 to 8 inches, and the Indian bandicoot, Bandicota indica, with a maximum length of 1 foot and a weight of close to a kilogram, are the two most prevalent species of rats in the city, according to Shilanjan Bhattacharya, professor of zoology at West Bengal State University.

Additionally, he claimed that the only effective way to control the rat population is to think creatively and permit the breeding and free roaming of natural predators like owls, monitor lizards, and jungle cats. The Forest Department and naturalists can plan how to handle such biological controls if authorities determine that they are an emergency and that they must be managed immediately. Other mechanical or chemical techniques have never been effective, especially in humid Indian cities where garbage is a common sight.

Professor Madhav Gadgil, a well-known ecologist and academic, provides an even more unconventional solution in an interview with the publication. He claimed that the best course of action would be to catch the rats, clean them of any harmful pathogens, and use them as poultry feed. Reintroducing the rats to the food chain is the answer. Rats, primarily field rats, are eaten by people in various parts of the country, he added.

Rat problems do not remain constrained to Indian cities like Kolkata and Mumbai. Their menace can also be seen in many parts of the world, namely the city of New York in the United States.

Rat infestations are a problem that almost every major city is dealing with. Rats have outsmarted even the best city administrations with the help of unchecked urbanisation. They live in the dankest sewer tunnels and systems, munching on piles of overflowing garbage, cables, wires, and even concrete as they go.