Pied piper got rid of rat menace by just playing his pipe in the German town of Hamelin in the medieval period, according to a legend.
The job of pest controllers is not that easy as playing a tune on one's pipe despite advancement in science and technology to this day. Catching rats is still largely accomplished with traps in rice-rich Karamchedu mandal in Krishna Western Delta (KWD).
“It’s a hard grind for us,” say rat-catchers, who have been engaged by farmers to free the farms of the persistent rodent menace as it is not the insects but our Mammalian cousins which account for about 20 per cent of crop loss of peasants.
Known for their hunting skills, the Yanadis catch 30 to 40 rats each day against odds in the slushy paddy fields. “We are paid just Rs. 10 a rat during the initial phase of paddy cultivation and Rs. 20 a rat as the crop matures when the number of rats dwindles”, explained the group of indigenous pest controllers at Swarna village after a day-long toil.
They go for fishing in creeks and depend upon wage employment under the MGNREGS during off-season.
Acknowledging the service rendered by Yanadis, Veeravasanta Rao, a farmer said “we have switched over to tractors for farm operations, dumping the Ongole bulls to save time and money. But we cannot afford to do away with the traditional hunters as the rat menace is harder to control than insects.”
Gearing up for harvest after Sankaranti, another farmer M. Satyanarayana said “as part of cost-cutting we have started using threshers for harvest, dispensing with high cost labour. But we continue to depend upon these traditional pest controllers to combat the problem of rats in paddy fields. As a reward we pay them, a bag of paddy after harvest.”
Known for their hunting skills, the Yanadis catch 30 to 40 rats each day against odds in the slushy paddy fields
