Ratted Out by Drunken Rodents

The only creatures having a field day in dry Bihar are rats, it seems. Cartons of confiscated liquor stacked in government godowns have become a happy hunting ground for alcoholic rats who are not even averse to drilling holes in metal beer cans to get to their daily tipple, going by the Bihar Police’s account of the latest such incident. Thousands of tipsy rodents careening around after guzzling thousands of litres of liquor should be easy prey for their traditional predators.


But as there has been no corroborative evidence of unusually high numbers of drunken rats being killed by even the laziest cats — or dying of liver cirrhosis — the policemen’s version is hard to swallow. More so as rats elsewhere in India or the world do not exhibit such cravings. Bihar’s rats deserve to be a case study for zoologists, given their unique penchant for any type of impounded liquor — be it beer or brandy, whisky or locally brewed hooch. As rats and humans have 97.25% common DNA, the cases in this one state could shed light on how to deal with similarly afflicted humans — in Bihar and elsewhere.


Indeed, as they also seem to have an innate ability to detect liquor even in the safest of official strongrooms, perhaps rats should be trained and utilised like sniffer dogs to track down contraband alcohol stashed anywhere in the state.