Sometimes it feels as if bureaucrats breed like rats, and nowhere is this truer than in New Delhi, India, where they have their very own municipal Rat Surveillance Department (RSD).

Staffed by 97 rat catchers who are paid 3,500 rupees ($77) a month each, the RSD has a pretty dismal record – there has been no recorded capture of a rodent by an official rat catcher for more than 10 years!

That is not to say that is a lack of potential targets in New Delhi, for rats can be seen everywhere – in parks, on streets, and in homes.

Though officials were quoted as saying that traps are set whenever a complaint is received about presence of rats in any other government department, they had no recollection of when or where any trap had been set.