Farmers cut rodent-shaped cake for ‘Pied Piper’ of Nilgiris

Mani of Ada Solai village was taken to a small restaurant by about 20 farm owners on Sunday, where he cut a cake in the shape of a rat, to celebrate his 61st birthday. 

The farmers said this was a token of gratitude for the ‘ratman’ as he had saved many of them from financial losses running to lakhs of rupees over the years. 

They said the rats normally destroy 30 per cent of their produce like potato, cauliflower, carrot and beans. The farmers, who invested Rs one lakh on cultivation every season, used to lose nearly Rs 30,000 to Rs 35,000 due to rats but, it had come down drastically with Mani’s intervention. 

Mani, a Class 3 dropout, entered the profession about 25 years ago, charging 25 paise to trap a rat. With growing demand for his services, his rate has gone up to Rs 80 now. 

Claiming he was the only rat catcher in the area for the last two decades, Mani said he traps about 10 to 30 rats daily, which are buried and if dead, fed to the crows. 

The rat catcher is famous not only in the Nilgiris district, but also in neighbouring Kerala and Karnataka. His services is also sought by big hotels, hostels and hospitals in the district and also Coimbatore, he said. 

Both his sons have stayed away from his profession, one becoming a welder and another a mason, said Mani, who owns a small hatchback.