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Leta Paharia shows us some of the indigenous, home-made rat traps of the Santhal Parganas region of Jharkhand.  A small farmer of Ghaghri village in Sunderpahari block of Godda district, Leta makes these traps himself. So do many other older generation men of the Santal and Paharia tribes.
 
 The traps are kept in the paddy fields, or wherever grain is stored, and the Adivasis find them effective in catching the rodents. The devices you see in the video clips here are made of bamboo and
 
 sal (Shorea robusta
 
 
 )
 
 wood. There are other designs too in the rat traps made here. But these were the three I filmed when I visited Ghaghri in November 2016.

Shut your trap!

ତୁମ ଯନ୍ତା ବନ୍ଦ କର!

ঘাগ্ৰীৰ সেই দেশী ফান্দখন!

Ghaghri

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Shut your trap!

Leta Paharia of Ghaghri village in Jharkhand uses various home-made devises – a bow-and-arrow contraption, traps that crush with blocks of teak, and traps that impale with bamboo sticks – to decimate rats

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