New Delhi, Jan. 5: Urbanisation in Bombay has exposed the metropolis to the risk of plague, according to the World Health Organisation’s Export Committee on Plague.
Dr. P.J. Deoras told the Indian Science Congress to-day that field rats once confined to the fields had started invading the city because the fields were taken for buildings.
He warned that field rats not only caused more damage but could also spread plague. The house rat was resistant to plague.
Dr. Deoras, who was formerly Assistant Director of Haffkine Institute in Bombay, said that some years ago the field rat formed only one per cent of the total rat population in the heart of Bombay. “As the city has been urbanised, the population of field rats has increased by 45 per cent,” he said. He worried that the probable change in rat population might give rise to a new health problem.
A member of Maharashtra State’s Environment Committee, Dr. Deoras also warned against the export of frog legs. This would lead to import of more insecticides and, therefore, to more pollution, he said.
Frogs ate insects which damaged paddy crop, Dr. Deoras said. A frog weighing one kilogram ate 600 grams, or some 10,000 paddy pests, he added. “We are unfortunately killing the frog for export of legs and trying to control the insects with endrin which further kills frogs, fishes, birds and other animals,” he said.
Published – January 06, 2025 03:22 am IST
