The Bihar flood death toll rose to 86 on Wednesday as more areas in the 12 affected districts got inundated, impacting 4.68 lakh people and forcing many marooned residents to hunt rats for food. These families are trapped on higher ground and embankments, where the rats too are flocking to save their lives. So we started catching and eating rats,” Vijendra Murmu, a youth of Dangi Tola village in Katihar, said over phone. Government officials, including Kadwa block development officer Rakesh Kumar Gupta, said he had no knowledge of people having to survive on rats. Nothing of this sort (people eating rats) has happened.

Source: The Telegraph July 17, 2019 20:10 UTC