The interviews and reporting for this story have been carried out in September 2023.

In the summertime of 2017, Prasad Phadke had simply stop his profitable company job and launched into an attention-grabbing enterprise aimed toward addressing a urgent public well being concern.

Working in shut collaboration with scientists and different like-minded individuals, Prasad had begun creating a product referred to as Eco BioTrap (EBT) aimed toward decreasing the inhabitants of mosquitoes and the incidence of vector-borne ailments they carry like dengue, malaria and chikungunya.       

“Sitting at a restaurant in San Francisco, we seen loads of mosquitoes buzzing round. It was solely earlier that week that instances of West Nile (one other vector-borne virus carried by mosquitoes) have been reported within the space. Regardless of the various advances in science and know-how, we famous how mosquito-borne ailments confirmed no indicators of abating. The query we requested ourselves was how will we break the chain,” recollects Prasad, chatting with The Higher India.

“To handle the scourge of mosquitoes, we wanted to discover a sustainable method of decreasing their inhabitants and develop a tool that might do the identical, notably for tropical areas. There was a transparent hole within the market, and we wanted to innovate and construct a biodegradable machine that might break the chain of mosquito breeding,” he provides.

Two years later, Prasad and his crew developed the EBT — a inhabitants discount machine for mosquitoes that ‘breaks the chain’ of their breeding and gives illness prevention from dengue, malaria, chikungunya, zika and different vector-borne ailments.

Formally integrated in July 2019 below the EcoBio Group, the enterprise is predicated out of Ahmedabad however has operations in cities together with Pune, the place they manufacture the EBT, and Mumbai as effectively.

 

How does it work?

Feminine mosquitoes who chunk people (males don’t) have a median life span of 15 to 30 days. They solely breed in water and lay roughly 500–1,000 eggs of their lifetime. The basic query right here is how will we break the chain of mosquito breeding.

What EBT does is mimic the breeding floor for feminine mosquitoes.

Earlier than going additional into how this machine works, it’s necessary to know its three core parts — a biodegradable container/vase comprised of recycled corrugated bins used extensively within the packaging {industry}; a pure attractant (plant-based animal meals) and bug development regulators (IGRs); and an industry-standard family insecticide.

“The way in which EBT works is that you simply add water to the machine. The attractant then lures the feminine mosquito to breed on this container, after which, the killing ingredient (IGR) ensures that no grownup emerges, thereby breaking the chain of copy. EBT is comprised of waste and saves lives, and is one that’s constructed on science and validated by scientists,” claims Prasad.

“BioTraps basically goal feminine mosquitoes by mimicking the perfect mosquito breeding floor to put their eggs. Our patented waterproofing know-how together with a fast and environment friendly supply of the IGR answer then eliminates the feminine mosquito and 100% of her larvae. Because of this, not a single grownup mosquito emerges from the BioTraps,” he provides.

When pressed additional on the precise elements of the pure attractant and IGR, Prasad notes, “The pure attractant is animal meals and for proprietary causes, its particulars can’t be revealed. IGR, in the meantime, is a family insecticide permitted by the Authorities of India and the World Well being Group (WHO), and is extensively utilized in India and worldwide by public well being departments. Particularly, nonetheless, EBT makes use of pyriproxyfen granules.”

Solely made in India and manufactured of their Pune-based manufacturing unit, a unit of EBT covers an space of round 400 sq. toes and prices roughly INR 500 (on Amazon).

“One other constructive ingredient of the EBT is its cost-effectiveness. Electrical vapourisers are 44% costlier than EBT. If you examine it with repellents like coils or essence sticks, a unit of EBT is about 5 occasions cheaper over a 4 to six-week interval,” claims Prasad.

However the query stays of how you need to deploy the EBT.

The first requirement is that it needs to be positioned in an space with no direct daylight. “Ideally, the BioTrap needs to be positioned on the ground, within the corners, with minimal motion round, and away from direct daylight. Nonetheless, it’s also efficient in attracting gravid feminine mosquitoes to put eggs when positioned at a top of 5 to seven toes when hung, and as much as 9 toes if positioned on a floor,” he explains.

And when are you able to count on to see outcomes? After deploying it for round per week, Prasad claims that you will notice a noticeable discount within the variety of mosquitoes.

Based on their web site, “Essentially the most important discount happens when the Eco BioTraps are frequently used over an prolonged interval.” It provides, “The effectiveness of mosquito inhabitants discount is additional evidenced by the presence of Aedes eggs discovered on the inside partitions of Eco BioTraps. By eliminating these eggs, Eco BioTraps successfully ‘Break-The-Chain’ of mosquito breeding, contributing to the general management of the mosquito inhabitants.”

As soon as its shelf life involves an finish after 4 to 6 weeks (marked by water leakage), the used unit of EBT needs to be handled as dry waste and recycled accordingly.

Challenges in creating EBT

A major problem in creating the EBT was discovering the fitting biodegradable materials that will maintain water for 4 to 6 weeks and never flip itself right into a breeding floor.

“Take the instance of an egg tray. It makes use of the identical materials utilized in EBT. Nonetheless, when you pour water in an egg tray, it won’t be able to carry water for seconds,” notes Prasad.

“The problem was how to make sure that related materials holds water for a month or extra. Loads of permutations and combos have been executed. The product now has patents in over 50 international locations for its distinctive means to carry water. We can’t delve into extra element in regards to the know-how employed due to its proprietary nature. General, it has taken greater than seven years of improvement and round 5 iterations to reach on the remaining product,” he provides.

Testing EBT in Dharavi

Lately, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Company (BMC) used EBT in Asia’s largest slum, Dharavi, as a part of a pilot undertaking. “The entice yielded good outcomes because it was user-friendly and protected for the setting. One other plus level of EBT is that in contrast to different gadgets used for the prevention of mosquito breeding, this entice doesn’t require electrical energy,” notes Dr Susanta Kumar Ghosh, a scientist previously with the Nationwide Institute of Malaria Analysis.

With the help of the ICICI Basis and BMC’s Insecticide Division, the EBT crew launched into an eight-month-long scientific evidence-generation train in Dharavi final 12 months. They lined three pockets of the slum — Rajiv Gandhi Nagar, Mahim Phatak, and Kumbharwada. A complete of three,000 EBTs have been deployed each month in these three areas, protecting roughly 10,000 households and a inhabitants of 80,000. 

“When Prasad and I first went into Dharavi to pilot check the EBT, we have been surprised by the density and complexity of Dharavi’s topography. It’s like a dense forest the place the shanties are so tightly constructed collectively that hardly any mild can penetrate by way of. Within the lanes of Dharavi, you can’t even open an umbrella and stroll,” recollects Dr Ghosh.

“Subsequently, the EBT with out a hanging mechanism was unimaginable to deploy, and I recall Prasad telling me, ‘Dada, we’ve failed even earlier than we begin’. Deepak, the manufacturing head on the EcoBio Group, and his crew took up the problem and developed a mechanism to resolve the issue with the hanging web that wanted to be biodegradable, maintain the burden of the pot (two litres with water), and never get squashed below Mumbai’s torrential rain,” he provides.

 

The marked success of this pilot undertaking garnered Prasad and his crew loads of acclaim with CNN News18 even that includes their work in a 10-minute documentary — as a part of their ‘Changemakers’ collection which was aired in November 2022.

Talking at an occasion commemorating World Dengue Day 2022, Rajan Naringrekar, the insecticide officer on the BMC, famous, “The dengue mosquito is a home, peri-domestic and container breeder, and one of many challenges we’re going through was the entry to homes and workplaces. Eco Biotraps is an apt answer to resolve this problem.”

Wanting Forward

Shifting forward, Prasad claims that the EBT crew “are within the remaining levels” of placing partnerships with numerous municipal companies and authorities organisations in India and different South Asian international locations. 

“Rentokil PCI, India’s largest pest management supplier, not too long ago signed an settlement that makes EBT obtainable in 1000+ RPCI branches throughout 21 states in India. What’s extra, our enterprise not too long ago raised an undisclosed quantity of seed funding from institutional traders and is valued at Rs 50 crore,” he says.

Can the EBT play a pivotal function in eliminating vector ailments like malaria and dengue?

“The elimination of vector-borne ailments has 4 key pillars — built-in vector management administration, illness administration (together with surveillance), civic participation, and IEC (info, schooling and communication). For any elimination to achieve success, all 4 pillars have to work in tandem. I imagine Eco BioTraps assist facilitate built-in vector management administration. What’s extra, they’re biodegradable and don’t emit any poisonous chemical substances like mosquito coils which might be identified to induce respiratory misery,” says Prasad.

(You may learn extra about EBT and the crew behind it right here.)

Edited by Pranita Bhat; All pictures courtesy: EcoBio Group.