Tamil Nadu - Chennai   

Now it’s a swarm of mosquitoes post-rain

— Photo: N. Ravi Kumar

Watery womb: Stagnant water on a vacant plot in West Velachery makes for ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes.

Chennai: Mosquito menace and the risk of diseases borne by them have increased after the recent rains. The Chennai Corporation has intensified its drive to control the mosquito population but residents want more proactive measures.

Corporation health officials said fogging operations would be taken up in the evenings when mosquitoes come out from stormwater drains in large numbers. Fogging would be done between 4 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. About 800 health workers, equipped with 250 fogging machines, would be deployed to work on the field.

The mosquito menace is acute in localities where stagnant water was slow to drain off after the rains. This includes localities such as Velachery in the south and Pulianthope, Perambur and Vyasarpadi in the north of the city. In Velachery, residents complained that water still stagnated in vacant plots and proved to be ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

Mosquito density is also high in places where there are canals and waterways. Localities around the Kodungaiyur canal, the Mambalam canal and the Captain Cotton Canal have increased mosquito density. Entomologists said that larval control measures should be improved as they would be more effective that fogging, which may only stun mosquitoes.

Malaria is caused by female Anopheles mosquitoes — one of three kinds of mosquitoes contributing to the menace. The other two kinds, Aedes egypti and Culex, can also carry disease. While Anopheles and Aedes egypti breed in fresh water sources, the Culex variety breeds in sewage. The Corporation has urged residents to ensure that their overhead water tanks are tightly covered. As the Aedes mosquito larvae can be found in fresh water stagnating in old tyres, coconut shells or old containers, these items need to be disposed and not left in the open.

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