Bamboo flowers play Pied Piper, rats set off famine scare in northeast

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Guahati: The blooming of rare bamboo flowers in India’s remote northeast has created an army of rodents that is devouring rice crops, setting off a famine scare, officials said on Friday.

Nearly 70% of Mizoram state’s 900,000 people have been hit by food shortages, TBC Rozara, the state’s food and supplies secretary said.

The state experienced a devastating famine in 1959 when bamboo flowering led to a multiplication of rodents. The phenomenon, which strikes about every 50 years, has hit the state again.

Farmers harvested only one-fifth of the expected rice production of 129,347 metric tons in the past year, enough for only two months’consumption in the state, Rozara said.

Bamboo flowering started in the state in 2006 and peaked last year, Rozara said. “Rats multiply in abundance whenever the rare bamboo flowering occurs as they feed on these flowers and then go about feasting on standing crops and granaries,” said LR Sailo, another state official.

Mizoram has sought 6 billion rupees in assistance from the federal government and is considering offers of help from the United Nations and other international agencies, Rozara said. “We need 15,000 metric tons of rice a month to prevent hunger in the rat-affected population. This is a huge challenge,” Rozara said.

There have been no reports of deaths from starvation so far, he said. “Rat attacks following the bamboo flowering have affected 130,621 families in 769 villages through mid-February,” Rozara said.

Federal authorities are rushing in rice to distribute to the poor at cheap prices, and state authorities are giving rice free to those with no money, he said.

Local residents are also buying rice across the border in Myanmar, Rozara said. In 2007, state authorities introduced a “kill a rat, get cash” scheme to deal with the menace. They offered 2 rupees for each rat killed in the state. Authorities also supplied free rat poison to about 10,000 farmers. But that didn’t help. “The situation is grave and we are having sleepless nights. But, we hope to deal with the problem,” Rozara said.