China joins rat race against flood-fleeing rodents

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's war of attrition on an estimated 2 billion marauding rats plaguing cropland around a flooded lake has claimed more than 2 million rodent casualties in one district alone, state media reported.

Farmers armed with ferrets and shovels had killed 90 tonnes of rats in the country's eastern province of Hunan, where 1.6 million hectares (6,200 sq miles) of cropland have been laid to waste by rats fleeing rising flood waters in the giant Dongting Lake.

The rodents, whose island habitats in the lake were submerged by the rising tide from heavy summer rains, migrated in huge numbers to dry land, leaving a trail of destruction in about 20 counties, local farmers and officials told Wednesday's China Daily.

"It's like the mopping up by enemy troops in wars. We have nothing left," 65-year-old farmer Yin Xinjin said.

Zuo Shigeng, a local agricultural official, said a dry first half of the year before the recent summer deluge had given the rats space and time to multiply in epic proportions.

"It is the largest rat disaster the lakeside region has experienced in the last 10 years," Zuo told the paper.

The huge volumes of rat bodies were being cremated or buried deep in deserted areas to avoid the spread of disease, Peng said, adding that no human infection had been reported thus far.

Floods and landslides have killed at least 360 people across China this month and destroyed more than 4 million hectares (15.4 million sq miles) of crops, Xinhua news agency said.