new delhi regular visitors at lodhi garden who had first launched the battle against bandicoots are now wondering how dogs came to be collateral damage they argue that the parks dogs not stray but community dogs have in fact helped contain the bandicoot menace dogs are essential to maintaining the balance in the garden cats cant handle these rats says suhas borker founder green circle delhi lodhi garden is home to about 40 dogs that are all assures borker wellcared for golf links resident veena singh has been feeding the canine community here for a decade there are about 15 volunteers who care for the dogs here but we always carry the food bowls away those who picnic here do the most damage she says ive seen people bring pots and pans to cook she also observes that the dogs have all been immunized and spayed we take them in our own cars to get them sterilized so that they arent traumatized by the vans she says the dogs are also an integral part of the parks security system there are many expensive plants here and sometimes they get picked up the dogs alert the gardeners and security guards whenever theres a trespasser adds borker there are various methods of dealing with rodent infestation in farms but what jps dabas senior scientist indian agricultural research institute iari suggests will never be accepted by visitors the highly toxic pesticide zinc phosphide zinc phosphide if used carefully can help deal with the rodent infestation very efficiently it has been used widely in farms to deal with rodents he says but keepers certainly want to avoid pesticides fumigation of the burrows is also a no no we dont want to use any pesticide or rodenticide says borker it will endanger even the birds squirrels and dogs dabas also suggests lesser toxic methods but those may not be as efficient and cheap the two safe methods are using irrigation to drive out rodents from their burrows or using pads that catch rodents once the rodent steps on the pad it gets stuck to it park keepers can throw the rats at a distant site after they are trapped by the pads however the pads are quite expensive costing about rs 25 per pad and are usually used in hotels and offices dabas adds that iari will be happy to help if park keepers approach them