Rats scare cats in great dyke takeover
HANOI - Vietnam's capital is under threat from an army of giant rats that
officials say have seriously damaged the city's flood-protection dyke
system ahead of the wet season.
Media reports yesterday said a 2.3km section of a dyke protecting
low-lying Hanoi from the Red River had become a "rat castle", where the
rats had dug in after an intense, but failed, eradication campaign.
Hoang Van Huong, a commune official at Dong My on the southern
outskirts
of the capital, confirmed the reports, saying the rodents had severely
damaged the dyke by building underground nests from which they raided
nearby rice fields.
Mr Huong said surviving rodents moved to the dyke after locals
eliminated about 45,000 animals in a government-sponsored 12-month
offensive offering about 500 dong (HK26 cents) a tail.
He said the survivors had bred quickly and now numbered in the tens of
thousands, with many weighing in at more than 2kg.
"There are literally thousands of nests undermining the dyke and many
of
the rats are so big, even our cats are afraid of them," he said.
"They are very clever animals and have learned to identify our traps
and
poison. They also know that the law prevents us from interfering with
the dyke, so that is where they have built their homes."
Irrigation official Hoang Van Uoc said authorities faced a dilemma as
water levels in the Red River were already rising fast ahead of heavy
rains that usually hit northern Vietnam in the coming three months.
"We can't repair the dyke until water levels fall sufficiently, and
that
will not be until October at least," he said. "Until then, we will just
have to step up efforts to catch the rats in the fields."
Rat plagues have become an increasingly serious problem in rural
Vietnam, with some areas reportedly losing 15 per cent of agricultural
production to the voracious creatures.
According to Ministry of Agriculture figures, rats destroyed more than
700,000 hectares of rice crops last year, nearly treble the losses in
1996.
Conservationists attribute the rise in rat numbers to the near
extinction of natural predators, in particular the killing of snakes,
which fetch big money from the illegal wildlife trade in Vietnam and
China.
But some regions have adapted to the scourge by selling rat meat for
human consumption.
By Huw Watkin - The South China Morning Post - June 26, 2001.
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