KARACHI: The sudden slump in the killing of rodents has set the Health Department of the Karachi Municipal Corporation to seek out new devices in the “warfare” between mice and men in the city. Official figures showed that the present rate of rat-killing by the Municipal rat-trapping squads had decreased by nearly 50 per cent in comparison with last year — during June last the 50 rat-trappers killed only 3,000 rats whereas the same number of rats were killed in a fortnight in June 1967.

According to city-rat-experts, the rodent population in Karachi was nearly a lakh — and a rat was born every two minutes. The meagre kill has mainly been due to the small rat-traps in use that only held the young ones – and even they had learned to sense troubles on seeing the contraptions. The sewer rats — ‘Ghouses’ — were too large to fit through the rat-trap doors and were proving a major nuisance for the Municipal rat trappers. ...

The Health Department classified rat-killing as a minor problem and left the working to the respective rat-trapping squads of the four health districts. The health districts, in turn, gave out the rat-traps on request and the rat-trappers collected them the next morning with the day’s catch. The routine was yielding poorer results, and the four health districts launched new devices to fare better in the war of mice and men. — Correspondent

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2018