The rising noise decibel is not only damaging people’s ear drums but also the livelihood of night rat killers. They are unable to meet their target of 30 rats a night simply because the city has become noisy. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has hired around 300 night rat killers for the entire city.
Vishwanath Munde, the BMC night rat killer, starts work at 2.30am.
“As per the corporation’s prescribed norms, we have to kill at least 30 rodents and hand over their carcasses to the senior authority the next morning,” said Munde. “But the noise pollution is making it difficult to meet the target. So, the next day we have to toil hard to fill the gap.”
Civic officials from the BMC’s insecticide department said noise pollution increases during festivals. People play musical instruments loudly during Ganesh, Dahi Handi and Navratra festivals.
During Ramadan, holy month of the Muslims, huge crowds come out on road to eat and pray and it goes on till early morning. Rats shy away from the noise and the crowd and this affects the target count of rat killers.
“The rat catcher’s job starts at night. Rodents do not come out if there are crowds on the road. So, it is difficult meeting the target as noise pollution is on the rise in the city. That is a cause of concern and worry for our rat catchers as the issue is related to their livelihood,” the official said.
Kishor Bhende, a rat killer, said there are more hurdles to their work. “Sometimes, people stop us and ask what we are doing late at night. Rats generally come out from burrows during peaceful night to scrounge through garbage bins. If there is less noise, we kill more than 30 rats a night,” said Bhende, who works at Ghatkopar.
Besides night rat killers, the BMC has also appointed contract labourers to carry out rat poisoning drives.
“After identification of rat holes, it has been covered with mud which afterwards shows that how many of rats have used it. Then the poisoning programme has been done. This helps control the rodent population in city,” he added.
