Rats causing some problems in North East India

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http://news./s/ap/20061116/ap_on_re_as/india_rat_menace_1

Bamboo boosting India rat population

 

By WASBIR HUSSAIN, Associated Press Writer Thu Nov 16, 2:43 PM ET

 

GAUHATI, India - A rare flowering of wild bamboo plants has caused the rat

population to explode in northeastern India, raising fears of famine as the

rodents rampage through rice paddies, officials said Thursday.

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An alert has been declared in Mizoram state, with authorities supplying rat

poison free to nearly 10,000 farmers and paying them to make bamboo traps,

said local Agriculture Minister H. Rammawi.

 

" The situation in Mizoram state is alarming. Farmers are killing rats in

tons after we directed them to do so using poison or locally made traps, "

Rammawi told The Associated Press.

 

The rat population is growing rapidly as they feast on flowering wild bamboo

plants — a phenomenon that usually occurs roughly every 50 years, Rammawi

said. The last time the bamboo flowered in the region, in 1959, a famine

ensured, he said.

 

" Whenever the rare bamboo flowering occurs, the rats multiply in great

numbers as they feed on these flowers and then go on rampaging the crops and

granaries, " said C. Rokhuma, a community leader.

 

State authorities have been supplying rat poison free to nearly 10,000

farmers and providing them cash to make bamboo traps, the minister said.

 

" Rats poisoned to death are buried by the villagers, while those trapped are

being eaten by some of them, " said James Lalsiamliana, the head of Mizoram's

Rodent Control Cell.

 

The state government has invited experts from Australia, Canada and Japan to

study the bamboo flowering and to devise methods to control the rat

population.

 

Ten Japanese experts are doing research on the rare variety of bamboo to

find out why it flowers after a gap of nearly five decades, Lalsiamliana

said.

 

Australian and Canadian experts have helped identify 14 species of rodents

found in Mizoram, although up to 30 different species are believed to exist

in the state.

 

Mizoram, a state of less than 2 million people, borders Myanmar and

Bangladesh.