Sometimes, Myanmar is kind of bizarre. In this sense, taming wildlife trading can result in surprising effects.
In January, a rat infestation took place around Pekon township, situated at the Southern tip of Inle Lake, overlapping Kayan territory.
As a consequence, paddy „and other cerial crops“ were devastated. The rodents‘ invasion could not be brought under control.
The Forest Department helped out. Being part of the police unit persecuting wild life crimes, it had seized hundreds of nonvenomenous snakes.
The department offered the snakes to the Shan Ministry for Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation to master the rodents’ problem. The Shan government accepted.
Later, Kayan villagers said that they were afraid of the snakes released into the forests close to their villages and that the government had left them alone during the peak of the crisis.
Another way of controlling the rat population is making them part of the daily diet. In the West a food taboo, in parts of Asia and Africa it is not.
Source: The Irrawaddy. 21.01.2020