Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: India’s Kolkata is waiting for a pied-piper to rid the metropolis of its innumerable rodents who are eating even a ‘bridge like a cake’. Thousands of miles away, the French are faced with an unprecedented ‘national emergency’ and praying to keep the bedbug menace away lest it repel the millions of sports lovers expected in Paris to watch the Summer Olympic Games, 2024.
Media reports from Kolkata said the rats are nibbling their way through the city’s flyovers, to cable lines, food, and papers in the State Assembly building, as exasperated officials have thrown their hands up.
The rodents have so far dug through the concrete bases of at least two flyovers, gnawed at underground sewage and cable lines, and ‘taken over much of the city’ from the slums and eateries of South and Central Kolkata to the colonial-era buildings of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the Bidhan Sabha at Esplanade, the media reported.
In France, the bedbug infestation has plagued Paris where the bloodsuckers are everywhere—from cinemas to hospitals to metros to trains. These alarming reports of a bedbug epidemic have panicked many who are counting on next year’s Olympics to shore up their finances.
Jean-Michel Berenger, an entomologist, said the annual late summer spike in bedbug sightings is not a new phenomenon. Incoming tourists in July and August unwittingly transport these pests in their luggage, with each year’s increase surpassing the previous ones, the media reported.
In Paris, cinemas are grappling with declining attendance as viral videos warned the people about infested seats. Metro commuters now peep through seats and upholstery to look for bedbugs and many opt to stand, leaving the seats empty. College students have been uploading disturbing footage of bedbugs on train seats, causing distress among commuters.
As Paris braces to welcome millions of visitors for the 2024 Olympics, the rising bedbug infestations have cast a dark shadow over the grand event. Deputy Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire regretted that “no one is safe” because of the surging infestations and the insects’ growing resistance to pesticides.
Bedbugs, small brown insects about the size of apple seeds, lie hidden in beds, mattresses, and box springs, emerging at night to suck human blood. They quickly migrate to clothing and luggage, making them a menace not just in bedrooms but also on public transportation.
Financially also, they are a burden, costing an average of €866 (Rs 75,574) per household to eradicate, with an annual national average expenditure of €230 million.
The severity of this infestation is reflected in the Parisians’ demand that bedbug treatments be included in home insurance policies.
A recent survey by the French health agency ANSES revealed that nearly one in 10 French households suffered from bedbug infestations between 2017 and 2022.