Residents of Garuthman Park in Basavanagudi have been plagued by rats for the past six months. The problem is not restricted to this locality. Residents across the city have complained about rats invading their homes, digging up gardens and chewing wires of parked vehicles.
Srinivasamurthy Vasudev, president of the Girinagar Residents' Welfare Association, said that bandicoots had damaged sanitary connections in many homes. “They block the connections. Residents have to repeatedly get these lines cleared. Often, the connections need to be replaced because of the damage caused by these vermin,” he said. Apart from this, rats dig deep burrows in gardens, ruining plants.
Lakshmeesha from Garuthman Park said that to protect parked vehicles, residents have been installing meshes at the bottom. “However, even this has not helped,” he said.
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The NorthEast Bangalore Residents' Welfare Association has written several times to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) about the rat menace. “The root cause of the menace is haphazard dumping of garbage, overgrowth in vacant sites, old drains and pipelines. We have pointed out the same to the civic body,” said D.S. Rajashekhar, resident of Kalyan Nagar and president of Citizens' Action Forum.
Concurring, B.R. Nanjundappa, former councillor from J.P. Park, said that the problem would not have compounded to this extent if drains were to be cleaned regularly.
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Mayor R. Sampath Raj admitted that the civic body had been receiving many complaints about the rat menace. The civic body, he claimed, is in the process of verifying the complaints and had deputed health officials to check on the same. “To control the menace, the BBMP has found that fogging and mechanical spraying help to some extent. That apart, concrete drains prevent vermin from digging and making burrows,” he said and added that he would take up the issue with health officials.