Eco friendly killings

Move over mosquito coils, repellent mats and creams. A green way of hacking the pesky biters, by way of bio-degradable insecticides, will soon make the nights more peaceful.

The brainchild of the National Malaria Eradication Programme (NMEP), bio-degradable insecticides -- melathone and synthetic phyrathoride -- will be used from 1997 onwards in lieu of chemical insecticides to combat the mosquito menace in the country.

Resistance of mosquitoes to chemical insecticides including DDT has rendered them ineffective. Stringent import laws by foreign nations on the use of chemicals on Indian agricultural produce has also called for a shift to bio-degradable insecticides which are expensive, but safer.