Chennai residents demand more fogging as mosquito menace increases
The civic body has received 1,973 mosquito-related complaints in the last three months, according to The New Indian Express.
Chennai residents are urging the civic body to intensify fogging operations to combat a surge in mosquitoes over the last few weeks, according to The New Indian Express. The corporation received 985 mosquito-related complaints in September and 687 in October, with 301 complaints recorded in the first 13 days of November.
Sandhya Vedullapalli, a resident of Anna Nagar, said fogging is only carried out after repeated complaints and suggested the civic body should use door-to-door hand fogging. She also alleged that the GCC is not spraying anti-larvicide along the nearby Otteri Nullah canal.
R Rathika, a 26-year-old resident of Vijayanagar in Velachery, said vehicle-mounted anti-mosquito fogging was last conducted in her area around three weeks ago. A petrol bunk staff member from Tollgate said the menace intensifies in the evening and has led to additional expenses for buying bats and sprays.
An official from the GCC vector control department said dengue cases have declined, with 1,260 cases in September and 1,174 in October dropping to 186 by November 13. The official suggested the increase in mosquitoes could be due to Culex mosquitoes found in stagnant water rather than dengue-transmitting ones.
The civic body has deployed 3,703 personnel for mosquito-control activities, with each worker inspecting 80 to 100 households daily. Officials have identified 372 locations across Chennai as hotspots for regular monitoring.
To control Culex mosquitoes, the GCC will focus on drone-based spraying on 240 km of waterways and conduct fogging operations in over 3,000 km of stormwater drains.