The bamboo flower blooms every 48 years. It causes a rat population explosion. It brings famine. This time, Aizawl is determined to tackle the rare natural phenomenon. Nitin A. Gokhale reports

As the saying goes, those who forget history are condemned to repeat it. The Mizos, with the experience of a devastating famine brought about by the twice-in-a-century phenomenon of bamboo flowering behind them, are however determined to implement the lessons they learned in 1958-60. The famine had resulted in an armed uprising by the Mizo National Front (mnf) that lasted for 20 years.

PETALS OF GLOOM: a flowering bamboo plant in Mizoram

The same Mautam — as the flowering of bamboo is known locally — is due to return to Mizoram and its adjoining areas between 2005 and 2007. Past records show that Mautam, which comes approximately every 48 years, not only kills all the existing bamboo plants but also brings in its wake millions of rats who first feed on the bamboo seed and then attack crops and granaries, leading to famine. But this time, Mizoram is ready. A Rs 550-crore programme is already in place to face the threat head on. Called the Bamboo Flowering & Famine Combat Scheme (baffacos), the action plan is spread across 14 government departments like food and civil supplies, agriculture, transport, health and horticulture and is designed to overcome all possible threats.

“We have learnt lessons from our past experience,” says Chief Secretary HV Lalringa, the nodal officer for baffacos. “Bamboo flowering is considered ominous in our society. We experienced a severe famine because of the rapid multiplication of the rodent population in the 1960s, which was later followed by the worst kind of armed conflict,” he recalls. Mizoram was then known as Lushai Hills and was only a district of Assam. The administration in Shillong failed to grasp the gravity of famine in the Lushai Hills district, forcing the Mizo National Famine Front (mnff) to become mnf and launch an armed insurrection in February 1966. The uprising lasted till June 30, 1986, when a peace accord brought the militants overground and full-time into Mizo politics. Today, ironically, the mnf under Chief Minister Zoramthanga is tasked with combating the possibility of a famine.

Among all the Northeast states, Mizoram is most susceptible to Mautam. Over 6,000 sq km of the state’s total area of 21,087 sq km is covered with bamboo. The current estimate puts the bamboo growing stock in the state at a staggering 25.26 million tonnes, nearly 12 million tonnes more than the next big bamboo growing state in the Northeast. According to records available with the state’s agriculture department, the Mautam before 1960 had occurred in 1910-12. Even then, the people experienced a tremendous scarcity of foodgrains. As Sir Robert Reid, the then governor of Assam, said in a report, “The partial failure of crops in 1910-11 as an indirect result of the flowering of bamboos was followed by serious scarcity all over the district. The effect of this flowering was to cause a tremendous increase in number of rats who destroyed all crops.”

One of the main plans of baffacos is to combat the rapid multiplication of rodents. Although no definite connection has been made between bamboo flowering and increase in rodent population, James Lalsiamliana, a scientist in the state agriculture department, says elders who experienced the 1959-60 Mautam and survived recall the phenomenon of rapid multiplication of rodents vividly. Going by their knowledge, Lalsiamliana’s office will be handling the rodent control project in the state in the next few years. Lalsiamliana says at the moment it is more of a belief that consumption of bamboo fruits helps increase the fertility of rats. “More rats means more mouths, and thus the easiest way is to attack the paddy fields,” he says. He adds that while no scientific study was conducted during the Mautam of 1959-60, the upcoming Mautam would provide an excellent opportunity for scientists to study this rare phenomenon.

The state government has already brought in Dr Ken Aplin, a renowned wildlife biologist from the Canberra-based Commonwealth Science & Industrial Research Organisation (csiro). Aplin travelled across Mizoram for three months and conducted a study on rodents and identified 11 species of rats across the state.

These days, Lalsiamliana and other officers of the agriculture department are busy in conducting an awareness campaign and training programme on rodent control for farmers across the state. “We are distributing pamphlets, booklets as we conduct field training for farmers. A weekly programme on radio stations imparts knowledge to farmers about rodent management in far-flung areas. We are planning to make a documentary to be telecast on Doordarshan and local cable networks for the benefit of the farmers. Our field staff will fan out to remote areas of the state after undergoing extensive training,” Lalsiamliana says. Local rat-traps and rodenticides are being distributed free to farmers to catch and kill rats wherever necessary.

Already, there are reports from the state’s eastern areas about a sudden rise in number of caterpillars, which the elders say is a precursor to a rapid increase in the rodent population. One elderly farmer Chhunthuama, who was 27 when the last Mautam struck, has been quoted as saying that famine is imminent in the state. “It is not being superstitious to think that bamboo flowering and famine are linked. It has happened in the past and now I think it will happen again,” he told the local media.

The government is not taking any chances. baffacos, an ambitious plan, rightly gives top priority to simultaneous extraction of bamboo before it perishes due to flowering. It also focuses on creating income-generating schemes that would continue to provide purchasing power especially to the rural people who constitute two-thirds of the state’s population. “We are encouraging the people to grow crops other than paddy so that the rodents do not find more food, while godowns are being constructed in every district and sub-division to store buffer stock of foodstuff in order to meet any exigency,” says Lalringa.

A number of industries are being set up to manufacture various kinds of items from bamboo. A Rs 5-crore unit set up with Taiwanese collaboration, to be formally inaugurated next month, will manufacture bamboo boards for floors, walls and other building material, while wood substitute for furniture will start rolling out from at least half-a-dozen smaller units soon. Also in the pipeline are units that will produce toothpicks, incense sticks and other items.

Chief Minister Zoramthanga, who had seen the earlier famine very closely, has convinced Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia to release more funds so that a network of ‘bamboo link roads’ is in place in the next six months to harvest as much bamboo as possible before the entire stock disappears because of flowering.

The mnf government, in power for the second consecutive term, wants to combat the likely famine well, and for good reason. The next elections to the state’s 40-member Assembly are due in November 2008. If it tackles the food scarcity successfully, it can easily be in the saddle for the next 10 years.