Like most farmers, Mokhiarul Islam had a problem with rats. Specifically, they kept eating his grain, to the tune of over 3 bags of chicken feed a month. For a guy on a limited budget, that’s a lot of money wasted due to some hungry, crawling vermin. So Mokhairul took matters into his own hands. Rather than getting a cat or flying in some rat-eating plants, like most of us would, he decided to start poisoning rats himself. After 83,450 rats killed in 9 months, he won a new color television as Bangladesh’s top exterminator! Second place was taken by Fakhrul Haque Akanda, who used a variety of traps to kill 37, 450 vermin.
That’s a whole lot of rats, but rats are a huge problem in Bangladesh. The country has to import 3 million tons of food every year, and it is estimated that rats alone account for 1.5 to 2 million tons of eaten or spoiled food products. The efforts of the two men (and undoubtedly countless others) are part of a government-funded rat-killing initiative that rewards hunters for the tails of their furry victims. Given that Bangladesh is one of the world’s poorest nations, anything you can do to keep food in the bellies of hungry kids is a good thing.
Tags: Dhaka, Bangladesh, man kills 83, 000 rats, world’s greatest rat hunter, Mokhairul Islam, unusual feats, animals, rats, Fakhrul Haque Akanda