AGRICULTURE AND IRRIGATION

RAT PLAGUES

The old Gazetteer records two rat plagues, viz., in 1847-48 and 1878-79, though details are available only about the latter one which caused much havoc. The plague in this year commenced immediately after the close of the monsoon (1878). It reached its height in December 1879. Rats appeared in great numbers and attacked wheat, cotton and garden crops. The plague was largely confined to black soil tracts, where rats are always plentiful but are kept from abnormal increase by the swelling of the soil with the first heavy rain of the monsoon which smothers many of them Probably, the absence of heavy rain in the early monsoon of 1878 should have favoured their abnormal increase. They ate up the grain before it was ripe for harvest. Only that was saved which was hurriedly gathered unripe. The heads of jowar and the unripe halls of cotton were picked while the ears of wheat were frittered off wholly. Garden crops were similarly affected. In 1878. only the late or cold-weather crops suffered. But in 1879 the early crops were attacked in June and July when rats and the devastations caused assumed the form of a furious plague. As soon as the grain was sown, it was scratched up and eaten before it had time to germinate. Many fields were sown as often as three times, but with the same result. The loss to the rabi was as great as the one caused to the kharip crops. Whatever grain was there was destroyed, as in 1878. By the end of 1879, however, the numbers suddenly decreased and the rats disappeared in a very short period.

The plague was fostered by the religious prejudices of the people. It was commonly thought that the spirits of those who died of starvation in the famine were, as a compensation, allowed to enter the bodies of the rats to be able to eat the unripe grain and seedlings not yet ready for food for living men. The cultivators practically did nothing. Various means for destruction were devised. Phosphorus-paste balls proved useless. The Burmese rat-trap and fumigation also failed. Asphyxiators and sulphur squibs succeeded in small areas, but the tedious digging up of the burrows by those who understood the habits of rats proved to be the most efficacious method.

In 1900-01 and 1901-02, rats caused considerable damage to crops. Rewards were announced to kill the rats; but caste-scruples and religious prejudices came in the way. Difficulty in killing the rats was experienced, as the rats appeared just after the rains and were hence able to hide in the grass. Large numbers were, however, killed. No records are available to inform whether rat plagues occurred after these years.

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