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The rodent threat in the hills

PINAKl ROY and SURANJITH DEABNATH
Family of Sa-Aung Gya along with 15 other families reached Zaitun Para after a four-day walk from their remote village in Rainkhong in Rangamati. Fear of starvation forced the exodus as rats infested their crops and left them with no food until next harvesting season.
"We have left our village in die wake of rats' attacks. The pests have destroyed almost all our crops and now we don't have anything to eat for the rest of the year," said Sa-Aung Gya.
Standing on the bank of the Sangu on way to Ruma, he told The Daily Star they were waiting for "Karbari" (chairman or headman) of Zaitun Para to get a permission to live there.
Hundreds other families
have become victims of rats in Rangamati and Bandarban districts of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CUT).
Many of these people have left their village homes in fear, seeing hill bamboos in bloom. According to the folk observation, in every five decades bamboo blooms and fruits, and the rats eat those, resulting in a huge increase in their regeneration.
"So rats increase like anything and swoop on the crops. I he situation becomes so serious that they destroy almost every edible thing in the infested localities," said Anil Tripura, former chairman of Galingya Union Parishad in Bandarban.
Anil witnessed the same situation in the CHT during 1960s.
Several hill people say this year some particular areas, especially Rainkhong in Rangamati and some areas of Ruma and Thanchi upazilas, have already been affected as bamboo bloomed there in last September.
The locals add that the rats have so far destroyed jum crops including rice, cotton, turmeric, ginger, oil seed, potatoes, and bananas.
"This year 90 percent crops of my jum land have been destroyed by Ut-malot," said Rending Maung from Thanchi. In their Marma language "Ut-malot" means rat attack
Realising the emergency, the government has already allocated Tk 5 lakh for distribution among 500 affected families. But the local people say the government effort is not enough.
Most of the affected families have food reserve to be consumed by March, theyadd.
"Their real crisis will start after March and last until September, the month of next harvesting," reports Monirul Islam from Bandarban.
The Department of Agriculture will launch "Rat Destruction Programme" in the whole country from February 3 considering the species as pest.
However, despite being severely affected areas, there is not any concentration on the CHT in the programme schedule.