Rats for lunch anyone

[snIPer]

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiap ... pstoryview

PATNA, India (AP) -- With food prices rising, one of India's poorest states is considering adding rat meat to the menus of state-run canteens, a move officials in Bihar say could help provide cheap protein for the state's 80 million people, most of whom live off the land as poor sharecroppers or subsistence farmers.

"People in different parts of the world eat lizards and dogs. Why not rats?" the state's tribal welfare minister, Jeetan Ram Manjhi, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

While the suggestion -- there are no firm plans to start marketing rat meat just yet -- may seem repulsive to many inside and outside India, eating rats is not unheard of in Bihar.

Among the poorest people in Bihar are a tribe known as Musahars, whose traditional place in the India's caste system was to catch rats, which they would cook and eat along with the rice and wheat they recovered from rat holes.

That's changed in the last few decades as many Musahars, under pressure from higher castes that consider rat eating unclean, stopped dining on the creatures, although they are still paid to catch and kill them by farmers.
Don't Miss

* U.N.: Poor could pay 40 percent more for food

But Manjhi, who is one of Bihar's 2 million Musahars, says the rodents are tasty and hopes the practice could be revived and popularized by putting the rodents on the menu at canteens in government offices.

"We've been enjoying eating rats since our childhood," he said. "When vegetables get expensive, it's what we eat."

Another official, State Welfare Department Secretary Vijay Prakash, said last week that popularizing rat meat could also help Musahars, the vast majority of whom are bitterly poor and uneducated.

India's elaborate caste system divides people into hundreds of social tiers defined by ethnicity, class, history and livelihood. Discrimination along caste lines had been outlawed for decades but remains prevalent, especially in largely rural and poor parts of eastern India like Bihar.

[b.baracho]

some of these good folks must visit goa a feast awaits them.

[badshah0522]

Do u have any receipe for Rats ...rat tikka masala,,rat kalimirch ,......

some of these good folks must visit goa a feast awaits them.

[shooter]

there was a similar article in india today many years ago.

[Shamsher]

Dear Badshah0522

I have a recipe for you, fried rats, heres the link

http://funreadingemails.blogspot.com/20 ... icken.html

Do let us know in case you decide to try em

B regards
Shamsher

[Sakobav]

This is scary invitation for plague and ticks. Many years ago in Punjab I saw some migrant laborers indulging in this. We were horrified and farm owner ensured they were provided with rations including some fish. That darn place was infested with cat sized rats.

Best

[perazzi]

Marta kya nahi karta - Sorry for the hinglish.

Cheers Rohit.

[snIPer]

In Tamil Nadu there is a particular tribe called the Irulli (true as far as my knowledge goes) and they have been eating field rats for generations without any ill effects.
I guess its the type of rat you eat that matters.

[Sakobav]

Sniper

Issue is not the rat meat but the rat flea that cause plague. Refer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_flea

[snIPer]

Enlightened. Thank you

[diskaon]

So now we have to wait for an invite from the Bihar gov to "hunt" rats to supply for their canteens.. and guess what we can keep part of the kill???

imagine an advt.. "Come to Bihar.. the heart land.. the rat land.. come .. Airgunners, SHotgunners, pistol, rev, PB, NPB, AK47 all welcome." they may even have a "prize money" which can be paid in the form of reimbursement of ammo!!

just think about it.. game hunting (rather verimin hunting)

It can even increase tourism to Bihar!!!!

[b.baracho]

As if... just imagine some trigger happy moron shooting rats with an automatics weapon .

[sudhaiob]

it is irulas a tribe from tn who are rat catchers for generations. a serial about them is being aired today in one of the three nature channels- ng, dis and ap, i am not sure in which. romelus whittaker an american settled in india has done yeoman service in bettering their living conditios.
regs
sudhaiob

[b.baracho]

it is irulas a tribe from tn who are rat catchers for generations. a serial about them is being aired today in one of the three nature channels- ng, dis and ap, i am not sure in which. romelus whittaker an american settled in india has done yeoman service in bettering their living conditios.
regs
sudhaiob

your right i think I saw this program on discovery some months back.

[ai]

We do have a member who is a rat sniper- I guess Rat Hunting Tours similar to Big Game Hunting in Africa could be organized. I'd be thrilled! Barbeques and all! Some Bollywood stars too would have a ligitimate avenue. Reverse migration from Maharashtra to Bihar? The possibilities are endless.