Patna: Passengers on a train created a ruckus and pulled the chain seeking immediate medical attention after an elderly woman had her toe nibbled by a rat in a Kolkata-bound Rajdhani Express from New Delhi on Thursday.
The long-distance train, which was passing through Bihar, was allowed to leave for its destination only after the woman was administered first aid by a doctor.
Railway officials said 55-year-old Roma Chatterjee was asleep at her berth when the rat bit her toe soon after the train had left the Sasaram station in Bihar, leaving her slightly wounded. Seeing blood oozing out of her toe, the lady screamed out in fear and co-travellers rushed to her help.
Finding her toe a bit wounded and the victim writhing in pain, the irate passengers hurriedly pulled the chain, bringing the train to a halt. The passengers were demanding that she be administered instant treatment. The train resumed its journey after the travelling ticket examiner (TTE), somehow, pacified them and promised medical treatment to the victim at the next nearest station.
The information was passed on to a nearby railway hospital and additional chief medical superintendent Dr. V.V. Singh immediately rushed to the Gaya railway station, which was the nearest stoppage point of the train.
Finally, the doctor examined the passenger, gave her an injection to prevent infection and administered first aid.
“There were too many rats scurrying about inside the coach when the train started to move from the Sasaram station,” a co-passenger Bappa Das told the local media on Friday, wondering how the railways authorities had ignored the looming threats from rodents and pests in the trains.
Rodent menace has turned out to be a big problem for the passengers especially travelling on long-distance AC trains. Last year in August, rats had bitten two passengers travelling in another Rajdhani Express at Moghulsarai station while in October, rodents bit a woman passenger aboard the Patna-Pune Express, according to a report. Some two years back, rats had nibbled the ear of a railway official in the retiring room of the Patna junction.
Railway officials say rats are found mostly in the air-conditioned coaches since the passengers do not dispose of remains of their food properly.
“In sleeper coaches, the passengers normally throw out remains their food out of the window but in AC coaches, the used plates are pushed under the seats which attract the rodents,” said a railway official.
