PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Since the fixing of head money for killing big rats in provincial metropolis of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa did not yield positive results, the district administration of Peshawar has now announced “operation combat” against the exotic species of rats that had killed eight children and injured over 400 persons so far in the city.
The district administration has constituted a committee comprising officials of Health, Agriculture and Water and Sanitation Department to kick off house to house combat operation against the rats and their multiplication, official sources said.
The district administration has initially released an amount of Rs One million for the operation and research based action and the amount could further be increased up to Rs 10 million to wipe out the menace of rats from the city, it was informed.
The district administration has also decided to take advice from Zoologists to overcome the fast growth of the rats.
According to experts, a female rat gives birth to over 24 babies within a period of 35-days.
The district administration has divided Peshawar city into zones to take house to house combat operation against the rats.
According to Dr. Hina of Lady Reading Hospital who is dealing with rat bites’ cases, the incidents of rats’ bites get upward surge in Peshawar city where about 426 patients with complaints of giant rats’ bites reported in one week.
She told APP that about 30 to 40 patients with complaints of rat bites are coming to LRH for treatment on daily basis, adding these giant rats could be carrier of rabies’ virus and their bites could be lethal.
Meanwhile, Assistant Professor Department of Zoology, University of Peshawar while talking to APP said that killing the rats is not the way out rather these could be exterminated through integrated approaches that included chemical, biological and other means.
He explained that use of chemical could kill 70 to 80 per cent population of the rats but there are possibilities that the remaining 20 to 30 per cent population could be resistant to the chemicals so the biological means would be the second option.
