In dry state of Bihar, 'drunkard rats' target police store rooms as alcohol vanishes from confiscated bottles

Drunk rats in dry state Bihar appears to have found an ingenious way to keep themselves in high spirits and overcome the state restrictions on alcohol availability. According to latest reports, rats in Bihar have begun targeting police store rooms where confiscated alcohol is being kept, stealing liquor without any trace. According to The Times of India, the police in Kaimur district of Bihar have “found 200 beer cans confiscated by police and kept in the storeroom with holes”. And “alcohol-craving rats” have emerged as the main suspects behind the theft. ABPLive said that in a similar incident alcohol was found missing from 11,584 bottles confiscated by the police. Kumari Anupama Singh, sub-divisional magistrate, told DNA that prima facie, the act seemed like “a doing of rats”. [caption id=“attachment_3776799” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image.[/caption] “It looks like the work of rats because only cans and cartons have been damaged. All the cans are in place (none were missing) but most were leaking and empty,” she said. According to the report, Singh will submit a detailed report on the alleged violation of the prohibition rules in Bihar by the “drunkard rats” to the district magistrate for further action. Nawal Kishore, district magistrate, Kaimur, who has ordered an inquiry, seems to be agreeing as well. The Times of India report quoted him as saying had it been done by humans, the “cans would have been cut properly”. “The beer cans were gnawed into by rats,” the Kaimur DM said. This, however, is not first time rodents have managed to steal liquor right from under the nose of the ‘highly efficient’ Bihar Police. According to ABPLive, in May 2017, “rodents had finished off nine lakh litres of alcohol from police store rooms in Patna”. Patna SSP Manu Maharaaj had blamed “drunkard rodents” for the act. In the meanwhile, VS Dubey, who retired as chief secretary of undivided Bihar and Jharkhand, seems to have a completely opposite view about the theft. He  told the Times of India, that it’s not the rat but the policemen themselves who are “either drinking or selling confiscated liquor”. The DNA report, also claimed that though large holes were visible in the cartons, sources said that no rats were found at the godown. The alleged rats behind the theft have emerged as non-discriminatory drinkers, as they seems to be targeting both desi and IMFL, beer and brandy alike. Gopal Sharma, scientist at Zoological Survey of India, Patna, also discredited the theory of “drunkard rodents” targeting police store rooms, saying rats have a natural aversion to a higher concentration of alcohol.