Of late, the civic agency – BMC, has woken up to a grim reality: target and annihilate the ‘breeding ground’ of mosquitoes that causes malaria. The BMC's pesticide crew has disposed off over 2,500 redundant tyres from Mumbai over the past month to reduce substantially the breeding of mosquitoes who causes vector-borne diseases like – malaria and dengue. BMC claims, such discarded rubber tyres have become the worst proliferating places for mosquitoes in the city and are difficult to treat.

 

BMC sources said rubber tyres are among the widespread articles found discarded all over the city. "People either abandon the tyres in some corner or put it on their roof so that the canvas sheets don't fly, but they don't recognize that the tyres are common mosquito proliferating sites and the dreariest ones for us to deal with," he informed.

 

The pesticide crew has been focusing on garages where such redundant tyres are often found. "We are now confiscating scores of tyres from each ward almost daily so that people become aware and take precautions," said a BMC official. “It is very tricky to remove water from inside the tyres and make certain they are entirely cleaned,” hew added.

 

Meanwhile, according to an official, the city has already reported 103 cases of malaria and seven cases of dengue in the first week of July. Patients have just begun showing up at doctors' clinics because the rains were delayed.