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Anti-rat race in Arunachal Pradesh

ITANAGAR: The Pied Piper would have had a field day in Arunachal Pradesh this year. Flowering bamboo has led to a proliferation of rats. The authorities are willing to pay to get rid of the infestation. A rat-tail fetches Rs 2. Just drop them, count, verify and walk away with the reward. No questions asked. Last week, one person collected Rs. 300 from the Deputy Commissioner's office for 150 tails.

It is part of Action Plan-2005. The administration launched the disaster management scheme on May 10 . It reasons that killing one rat during the initial flowering cycle would prevent its multiplication into 30 in three months.

East Kameng district, for instance, has in the past experienced sporadic flowering of bamboo, but without much impact on local life, except for some plants drying up. This time the bamboo is flowering abundantly, which is likely to result in the manifold increase of rodents. Increased rodent activity has been reported from the district.

The gregarious flowering of bamboo is a phenomenon that occurs once in 20 to 30 years. This is invariably followed by rapid growth in the rat population, mainly for two reasons. Eating bamboo flowers enhances oestrogen secretion in rodents, causing early puberty and more sexual activity. The flowers provide abundant food supply to the rodents. Finally, when the flowers dry up, the rodents look for other sources of food. They attack crops and granaries. When hundreds of thousands of rodents start feeding thus, a famine-like situation will follow.

UNI

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Anti-rat race in Arunachal Pradesh

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