Abdul Hannan, a carpenter in Magura, has killed 20 lakh rats in 20 years, and in doing so he keeps helping farmers.

Hannan's story began like this: he once bought 15 maunds of paddy and stored it at home. But when he measured it about five months later, four maunds were missing. Seeing rats scurrying around the house, he understood what had happened.

From then on he kept thinking about how to kill rats. Drawing on his experience as a carpenter, after a few days' effort he built a rat-killing device. It proved its worth within just a month, by which time his house was free of rats.

That success set Hannan thinking differently. He began killing rats in homes and crop fields around the area, and within six months his village, Barokhori, was free of rats. As word spread, calls began coming to Hannan from far and wide, and his success is now known across Magura district.

Hannan says that in 2010 he received an award for killing 1 lakh 90 thousand rats, and the next year he was honoured again for killing 2 lakh 10 thousand. He claims he has killed at least 20 lakh rats in the past 20 years.

Sagar Hossain, a resident of Hannan's village Barokhori, said Hannan works entirely selflessly for society, especially for farmers. Not only in his own village: wherever a call comes from, Hannan rushes there.

He added that although he has no academic education, carpenter Hannan is driven by social service. He does the whole job without any payment, and has kept the devices he built open for everyone to use.

Hannan told Dhaka Tribune: "This work is not my profession, it is my passion. If I can be of even a little use to people, I will feel blessed. This is how I want to serve society, by killing rats, the enemy of crops."

Sohrab Hossain, an official of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Magura, said Hannan is doing great work. A single rat eats 27 grams of food a day and also spoils a significant amount of food every day.

Statistics show that every year rats across the country destroy food grain equivalent to the needs of 54 lakh people.

Agriculture officer Sohrab therefore believes Hannan's initiative should be encouraged and promoted across the country.

Source: Dhaka Tribune. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.