It seems Bangladesh has a very serious rat problem. A farmer in Bangladesh has now been given an award as the national champion rat killer, after he and his team killed over 160,000 rats in the last 12 months.
Bangladesh officials announced Thursday that farmer Abdul
Khaleq Mirbohor has been awarded 20,000 Bangladeshi taka (around $250) as a
prize for getting rid of 161,200 rats in one year, a princely sum for a farmer
in the country.
This is part of a nationwide campaign launched to protect grain
from the ever hungry rodents.
Abul Kalam Azad is head of the Bangladesh government’s plant
protection unit and he spoke to the media about the award.
“Mr Mirbohor is a passionate rat killer. During the ceremony, he told the dignitaries that nothing gives him pleasure (more) than killing grain-eating rodents,”
As for Mirbohor’s team, he hires mostly women volunteers to kill the rats in the paddy and wheat fields, retaining their tails as
proof of the kill. The tails are then submitted to the regional agriculture
office to be counted.
The 55-year-old farmer told AFP that he has been killing
rats since 1996 and that he loves killing them.
“They are the enemy of the country and people. They devour grains, ground nuts and spread diseases.”
Reportedly the rodents destroy between 1.5 million to 2
million of tons of food each year in Bangladesh. According to government
officials, in total farmers have killed almost 13 million rodents over the last year,
saving food worth $25 million.
One government official, Borhan Uddin, said Mirbohor was
“obsessed” with killing the rats and that his fellow villagers call him mad. “He
is like a Pied Piper of Hamelin,” he added.
Photo: CC BY-SA 2.0 Jean-Jacques Boujot
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