Mangalore: Rat Attack on Mumbai-Mangalore Matsyagandha Express!
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (SP)
Mangalore, Jan 16: It has been a common experience for the people travelling by trains in the region to find rats running around here and there. Surprisingly, the compartments in which the rats move around happily, many a time, bear a recent date on which pest control is said to have been conducted.
The experience of people who arrived by the air-conditioned compartment of Matsyagandha Express train from Mumbai to the city on Sunday January 15 morning, was no different. Over 15 bags of the passengers were found to have been gnawed at by the rats, which were evident by the cuts and opening inflicted on these baggages. Hands and legs of two women travellers were also found to have been bitten and injured by these rats.
The compartment in question had about 65 passengers. Food and fruits kept in these bags were found to have been eaten up by the rodents. Items like footwear, plastic items, clothes and mats were found to have been thoroughly damaged by the rats. In some cases, the passengers were left with no other alternatives but to lift their baggage with both the hands, as the handles were found to have been severed. The bags of passengers who were seated nearer to the toilets suffered more from rodent attacks.
The passengers, whose oral pleas so far do not seem to have had any effect on the railway officials, have decided to take up the matter with the railways in writing. One of the passengers, Dr Jeevan Shetty from Falnir here, has handed over a written complaint to the station master of Kankanady railway station.
Two passengers, who were bitten by the rats, visited hospitals and got themselves injected with preventive medicines. The explanation of railway staff is that the rats get into the ducts of air-conditioned coaches, and come out only during nights to make merry.
Whatever be the explanation, the railways owe efficient services and safety of passengers’ belongings. While thieves, and those who posed as friends and supplied items laced with intoxicants to passengers before looting them, were dreaded during railway journeys, the passengers now have an additional adversary in the form of rats. Unless the railways act fast, they are sure to face retaliation from irate passengers.