Champion rat killer crowned
2009-02-05 14:01
Dhaka - A poor farmer from northern Bangladesh was on Thursday crowned the country's rat killing champion with a final score of 39 650 dead rodents after a year-long hunt.
Binoy Kumar Karmakar, 40, used traps, poison and flooding to kill his quarry. He collected their tails to prove his success rate and to claim a prize from the government.
Karmakar walked away with a Sony colour television for winning the competition for 2008. The competition was part of a nationwide drive to stop food supplies being eaten up by rats.
"During the year, our farmers killed around 25 million rats," agriculture department spokesperson Abdul Halim said. "Binoy Kumar Karmakar has been declared the champion for killing 39 650."
Officials estimate that up to 10% of Bangladesh's crops - mostly rice, wheat and potato - are devoured by millions of rats every year.
Last year an invasion of rats in Bangladesh's south eastern Chittagong hill tracts region wiped out crops and caused a famine in some remote villages.
The United Nations World Food Programme distributed food aid to 120 000 people for four months after the invasion forced affected tribal people to live on wild roots.