In the heart of Ludhiana, a once-beloved public park has become the unlikely battleground in a growing global war against rats—a problem that is plaguing cities from India to America. The Gole Market park, nestled in the city’s Model Town, is now infamous not for its greenery or tranquility, but for its overwhelming stench, rat burrows, and broken infrastructure. The situation has become so dire that the Model Town Market Welfare Society has taken the fight all the way to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and the Punjab State Human Rights Commission (PSHRC), demanding accountability from the Ludhiana municipal corporation (MC).
“The condition of the park in Gole Market is deplorable. Rats have made their burrows everywhere. The gates are broken, and the walking footpaths are also broken in many places. People are being deprived of even going for a walk,” said Daljeet Singh Takkar, president of the market society, in a plea that echoes the frustrations of countless urban residents worldwide. According to the society, the park is virtually unusable—its former glory now a distant memory, tarnished by neglect and official indifference.
The primary culprit, according to shopkeepers and residents, is a large public toilet installed in the middle of the park. “The MC established a public toilet in the middle of the park. Due to a lack of proper cleaning, dirt is spread all the time and keeps increasing,” complained Arvind Sharma, a local shopkeeper. The persistent foul odor and unsanitary conditions have transformed the park into a breeding ground for rats, compounding the sense of abandonment felt by the community.
To make matters worse, the municipal corporation marked a spot in the park for a bottle crusher machine (BCM), but the machine itself remains absent, leaving yet another chunk of public space out of commission. Manjeet Singh, chairman of the association, lamented, “Due to the pathetic condition of the park, the Model Town Gole Market’s maintenance is tarnishing the old park’s glory,” underscoring the urgent need for proper maintenance and revitalization of public parks.
Yet, Ludhiana is hardly alone in its struggle. As reported by The Economist, the rat problem is worsening in cities around the world, not just in India or the United States. In New York City, for instance, a 2023 study by MMPC, a pest-control company, estimated the city’s rat population at 3 million—up from 2 million a decade earlier. These numbers are more than just revolting; they come with a hefty price tag. Rats cause an estimated $27 billion in annual damage across America, much of it in rural areas where they nibble crops, but increasingly in urban areas where their presence is felt more acutely.
“I’ve kicked bags of garbage in New York as part of a rat safari and you just watch rats go flying,” said Kaylee Byers, an urban rat expert at the University of British Columbia. The city’s sidewalks, long lined with black plastic rubbish bags, have provided a veritable buffet for rats. Joshua Goodman, deputy commissioner of sanitation in New York, painted a vivid picture: “A rat runs across your foot. You think about it every time you’re on the block for the rest of your life.”
Beyond the disgust factor, rats present serious public health risks. According to The Economist, city rats are notorious for “urinating and defecating kind of constantly,” spreading E. coli, salmonella, and more than 50 other pathogens and parasites, including those that cause typhus and leptospirosis. The public health implications are staggering, and the problem is only getting worse. Climate change, food abundance, and milder winters are all contributing to booming rat populations in cities like New York, Washington DC, Boston, and Toronto, according to biologist Jonathan Richardson of the University of Richmond, who has spent 15 years studying rat population dynamics and control.
While global warming might be beyond the direct control of city officials, the way cities manage food waste and rubbish is not. New York, after decades of relying on plastic bags for trash—a move that began after a sanitation strike in 1968—has started to reverse course. Since May 2023, the city has rolled out a strict, data-driven program to contain rubbish, spearheaded by Jessica Tisch, now the NYPD’s top cop. Seventy percent of buildings in New York are now required to use rat-resistant bins with lids, including all smaller buildings and commercial premises. Early evidence is promising: reported monthly rat sightings have been dropping, and the city’s experiment with “containerisation” is being watched closely by other urban centers.
In contrast, other American cities are struggling to keep up. In Washington, DC, rat complaints rose nearly 13-fold from 2014 to 2024, while in Boston complaints more than doubled. Toronto, too, has seen complaints nearly triple. A key reason, experts say, is the lack of enforced use of ratproof bins and the continued reliance on plastic bags for rubbish. “A lot of times people get the cheapest possible bin from Home Depot that rats can just chew right through, or leave drain holes or lids open,” said Dr. Richardson, highlighting a common problem in many cities.
Boston’s mayor, Michelle Wu, acknowledges that rats are “one of the top concerns that we hear for quality of life across Boston.” The city has launched assessment programs, installed several hundred remote sensors to track rats, and plans to improve rubbish collection frequency and expand containerisation over the next three years. Yet, as Dr. Byers points out, “Cities have been tackling the wrong part of the problem.” The focus has often been on killing rats with traps and poisons, which can harm other wildlife, rather than cutting off their food supply—the one thing rats need most to thrive. “Why eat the bait when you’ve got a piece of pizza nearby?” she asks, underscoring the need for smarter, systemic solutions.
New York’s “rat tsar” experiment, though recently left without a leader, has shown that targeted, citywide policies can make a difference. Niamh Quinn, a specialist in human-wildlife interactions at the University of California, noted that “a huge proportion of cities in the US don’t really have any planned response, which just leaves these massive gaps in management.” Boston, for its part, plans to expand its efforts, but only after “community engagement to make sure that everybody would be on the same page,” according to Mayor Wu.
Back in Ludhiana, the Model Town Market Welfare Society’s legal battle is a stark reminder that the fight against rats—and the urban neglect that enables them—is a global challenge. Whether it’s the broken gates and foul smells of Gole Market park or the overflowing rubbish bags of New York, the message is clear: without sustained municipal action and smarter waste management, rats will continue to thrive at the expense of public health and quality of life.
As cities around the world grapple with this age-old adversary, perhaps it’s time to recognize that the real solution lies not in more traps or poisons, but in the unglamorous work of maintenance, community engagement, and a relentless focus on cutting off the food supply that keeps rats coming back for more.