In Wake Of Rat Boom, 1 Million In NE India Face Famine - 80% Of Rice Crop Gone - AFP

[hatrack]

million people in northeastern India face famine after rats destroyed most of the rice crop in their state, the International Rice Research Institute has said. The 2007 infestation spread over to the border areas of Bangladesh and Myanmar in early 2008, "increasing fears of widespread food shortages," the Philippines-based institute said.

It left the Indian state of Mizoram, home to about a million people, with just one-fifth of its monthly rice requirement. "Aid agencies have reported that many people have been forced onto a diet of wild roots, yam and sweet potatoes," the institute said in its quarterly magazine "Rice Today".

IRRI said the rat population boomed after the flowering of a native species of bamboo, an event that occurs only once every 50 years.

"After exhausting the feast of bamboo seeds, the rats turned to the rice crop," it said.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/2007/080710081133.oi0ekiei.html

[Spoonman]

1. Natures solution

to over population of the region!

[eShirl]

2. rat = "poor man's game hen"

unless, of course, one is vegetarian...

[aquart]

3. They never heard of cats?

[enid602]

4. caste

I saw a special on PBS once that detailed the lives of members of a caste whose purpose in life was to catch, kill and eat rats in rural areas. Not one of the higher castes, mind you. Business must be good for them now.

[The2ndWheel]

5. Another baby boom

I wonder what the media of other species was saying when our population boomed and ate more food. I'm guessing, "why aren't we developing pesticides?"

[kestrel91316]

6. Just watch. They will have a plague epidemic now.