The Temple of Rats
The Karni Mata Temple in remote Deshnoke India is infested with more than 20,000 rats and visitors come to worship the rodents; the reincarnated children of celebrated goddess Karni Mata. The rats, called kabbas, are protected by the buildings netting and grills to keep out predators such as raptors. The rodents scamper freely within the temple and eating from a bowls of milk and grains, placed there daily by followers. There is no history of plague in this area, despite the presence of these vermin for many years. The temple rules state that stepping accidentally on rat and killing it is a sin. The perpetrator is then bound to buy a gold or silver rat statue and place it in the temple as a payment of sin. The legend behind the rat infestation is that when an army fled to Deshnoke, a sin punishable by death, Karni Mata showed mercy and turned them into rats instead.
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