Do you know what the Cobra Effect is?

Cobra effect

It is known as Cobra Effect to make social or political decisions that end up having a result diametrically opposed to what was originally desired. For example, if a special subsidy seeks to reduce poverty, but ends up raising prices in the area and more people become poor. Or if a law that limits the cars to clean the air ends up promoting the purchase of more polluting motorcycles and worsening the situation. Things like that.

The interesting thing here is the origin of this expression. It comes from the British colonial government in India in the mid-nineteenth century, when a decision by the British led to dramatically worsen the situation.

Snakes in Delhi

In those years the Hindu cities were quite rural and the fauna abounded in them. The cobras, in particular, were terrifying to the British, who were not used to seeing snakes of such size anywhere in the world. But the Hindus, who have lived for millennia with them, simply shocked or killed them.

For this reason the British made the decision to purge the city of snakes. If it was going to be the imperial capital it should at least be free of plagues, or at least that's what they thought.

The cobras, in particular, were worrisome. For this reason, a law was established that paid a prize to anyone who brought a dead snake to the authorities. It was expected that with this (which in fact had worked with many species around the world, including tragically the Tasmanian Tiger) the problems would end.

But the British did not have the ingenuity of the Hindus. Accustomed to snakes, they soon began to create small breeding sites for these animals. The young, dead, were worth very much in the system of rewards established by the British.

Of course, soon the rulers realized and canceled the payments. And the population of captive cobras, which was now worthless, was liberated in the city. This is how Delhi ended up with a much worse problem with snakes than the one before the "solution".

Rats in Hanoi

The funny thing is that exactly the same happened a few years later in Hanoi, then under French rule. In this case, however, it was paid for the tail of the rats, so that people were limited to raise them, cut their tails and release them. Needless to say, the rat population increased ... and in particular that of rats without a tail.

So you know: think well before asking for something.

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References:
IndiaTimes
Wikipedia

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