31
31. The goodwill of grain merchants could be easily won if they
could he brought to realize the enormous pecuniary loss they suffer
by the depredations of rats. A single rat devours a not inconsiderable
quantity of grain in a year, and if this amount be expressed in terms
of money, they would appreciate the fact that the storage of grain in a
building which is not rat-proof is not sound business. In this connexion
the following facts are of interest.
32. The opinions expressed by Boelter in his book The Eat Problem
have been arrived at after a series of experiments and are more or less
universally approved. He states that (a) there are at least as many rats
as there are human beings, and (6) each rat causes each day a loss by
the destruction of food and material of at least one farthing. Conditions
for the breeding of rats being more favourable in India than in Great
Britain, the application of the first statement to India errs only on the
side of leniency. The pre-war prices of articles in Britain, on which
the estimate of one farthing is based, will correspond in most cases with
the current post-war prices in India, and the above estimate may there-
fore be applied also to India without much hesitation. On the data
furnished by Boelter, every head of population in India incurs an econo-
mical loss of Rs. 3-12-0 per annum on account of the danmge caused by
rats. In the above calculation, the exchange value of a rupee has been
taken as two shillings.
33. Major Norman White, in his Memorandum on Plague issued
with G.O. No. 256 P., dated 4th May 1918, states that even at a very
low estimate there are at least twice as many rats in India as there are
human beings and that each rat consumes upwards of three-fourths of an
ounce of grain each day, and that, assuming the price of the grain pre-
ferred by the rats at ten seers per rupee, a loss of Bs. 1-11-0 is caused
each head of the population by the consumption of grain by the rats,
besides damage to property of other kinds. Considering the present
prices of food-grains, Major Norman White's figures require revi-
sion. As the staple food-grain of the Madras Presidency, viz., rice,
sells at only about six seers per rupee, the loss caused per head of popu-
lation by the rat by destruction of grain alone would come to about
Ks. 2-13-0 ; and at least another 50 per cent may be added as the value
of other property damaged by the rat, making a total loss of Rs. 4-3
per head of the population in a year.
With reference to the above, it should be noted that Major Norman
White considers that there are twice as many rats as human beings ;
while according to Boelter, the rat population approximates the human
population in its numbers.
34. In Besolution No. 637 of the Government of India, Department
of Education, issued with G.O. No. 160 P., dated 3rd November 1920,
after a prefatory remark that it would be hazardous to make any com-
putation of the damage caused by rats in India, it is stated that in
British India alone the number of black rats (exclusive of other species)
is about 375 millions—about 1'6 rats for every head of the human
population, and that the quantity of grain consumed by them in a year
would be one million tons, equivalent in value to about 16 crores of
rupees (one ton of grain costing on the average Bs. 160). This loss is
with reference to the grain consumed by black rats alone ; a similar loss
i
caused by other rats and the damage to property being excluded, It is
e