India Goes to War

The Indian army is fighting an enemy it hasn't faced in nearly half a century. No, it's not fighting off British colonialists, nor is it a clash with neighboring Pakistan. It's rats. Millions and millions of rats. You know...mean, aggressive rodents of unusual size -- the dirty, grey, fuzzy kind that are led by their long whiskers as they scuttle around making a "thp-thp-thp" noise. Every 48 years, the bamboo forests that cover a third of the northeastern Indian state of Mizoram bloom and flower. The plants cast off seeds, which are devoured by a plague of rats which come out to feast and multiply. Once the flowering is over, the rats turn their attention to cultivated lands, destroying crops, spreading disease, and causing famine. Called Mautam, the rodent insurgency even led to a 20-year separatist movement, which ended in 1986, by the Mizo National Front, which accused the Indian government of not doing enough to combat the plague. This time, the military is ready, and it really is fighting an army of dirty rats.