Soldiers are usually rewarded for bravery. Many times ordinary people are also given special awards to show this bravery, in India, children are also given bravery awards. But you have hardly heard the phrase of being awarded a gold medal for bravery to a rat. But an African rat has been given the Gallantry Award. He has been given this award for finding landmines in Cambodia.

This award has been given to this rat for his special bravery services, under which he helped in the detection of large number of landmines and non-explosive explosive substances in his illustrious career in Cambodia. 

A total of 39 landmines and 28 non-explosive explosive substances were discovered by this African rat named Magawa, due to which a UK Veterinary Charity Society (PDSA) gave the Gold Medal. According to the press association, Magawa was trained by a charity named Apopo and it was among the top hero rats. 

According to the charity, the rat contributed significantly in cleaning the area of ​​about 20 football fields, which was 141 thousand square meters. This is a very large area for a mouse. Not only is this 1.2 kg rat able to sniff out landmines, but its weight is so low that it did not explode even after landing on landmines. 

In how long such highly trained rats can sniff the entire tennis court in just 30 minutes to tell whether there is any explosive substance or not. At the same time, for this work, humans take four days with bomb detectors and with that the risk in this work is very high. 

Attention to the problem of the people of Cambodia is the first time that a munching animal has won such an award in the 7-year long history of PDSA. This news has brought attention to the major problem of people living in Cambodia who are risking their lives between landmines in Cambodia and its surroundings.

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How long it takes to get ready is APOPO a registered charity in Belgium which She works in Tanzania. This organization prepares seven-year-old magawa-like mice and munching animals since 1990. It takes a year to train a rat and join a bomb-sniffing squad. 

Landmines and explosive avalanches of war have killed many Cambodian residents. According to data from Cambodia Mine Victim Information Services, from 1979 to 19684 people have been killed due to these values. Many mines are still scattered in Cambodia 

APOPO has carried out campaigns to clean up such mines using munching organisms in several countries including Angola, Mozambique, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. The biggest advantage of using these animals is that there is no danger from them because they are not so heavy that the landmines explode.