Govt on alert after massive bamboo flowering

Aizawl, July 12: Reports of sudden massive bamboo flowering across the NE belt of the state bordering Manipur and Myanmar and its subsequent multiplication of rodents along these areas made the agriculture rescue team to rush across to several villages in the region.

Almost all the bamboo on the banks of Tuivai and Tuisen river bordering Manipur and neibouring Myanmar have flowered and have left a bad affect on paddies.

A team of agriculture rescue team headed by Deputy Director James Lalsiamliana, who visited Mimbung, Teikhang, Hrianghmum, Khawdungsei and Khawkawn villages during couple of days found that the areas have already experienced an exensive bamboo flowering or Mautam.

Talking to UNI here today, Agriculture Deputy Director (extenstion) James Lalsiamliana said, "due to this extensive bamboo flowering along the border areas, high chances of hordes of rodents is expected to migrate from the forests of Manipur and Myanmar very soon." "About 30 villages along these areas have to be rescued immeditely from the expected rodent attack," he added.

Mr James also pointed out that so far total of 14 rodent (murid) species were positively identified. An additional 20 species are likely to occur in Mizoram on the basis of their known regional distributions.

"Even though rodents, at present, have not directly attacked the paddies, the plants have already suffered disease such as stem borer," he said adding, "the disease is expected to spread along these areas within few weeks".

We have instructed all our agriculture officers across the region to be alert and asked them to report immediately to the rescue team in case of any eventuality.

"We would be covering as many as 200 villages to control the rodent population immediately, where the respective farmers would be given rat-traps and rodenticides at free of cost," Mr James said adding, "ready-to-use bait evaluation using acute rodenticides, zinc phosphide to tackle rodents at higher intensities and inaccessible areas will also be conducted".

Health officials here also warned that given that rodents in Myanmar are suspected to carry plague and urged the farmers to immediately report any case of rodents attack on their paddies to the department.

The Mizoram government has immediately announced that all the adverse effects would not re-occur in the coming bamboo flowering.

The state government has already come up with a scheme for 5 years beginning from 2004 called Bamboo Flowering and Famine Combat Scheme (BAFFACOS) under which nearly Rs 600 crore had been planned.

Apart from the rodents, farmers across the state have already reported swarming of locusts, 'thangnang' (a bug believed to be harbinger of bamboo flowering famine), and other insects, which elders in the state interpreted as a bad omen, harbinger of a devastating famine.

Besides this, swarming of locusts, bugs, and leaf folder insects are already witnessed by farmers across the state and experts feel that these are the signs impending to a possible natural disaster.

According to the records during the last bamboo flowering, first, it was the massive rodent population boom which ravaged the paddy cultivation across the state that eventually led to the worst ever famine in the history of Mizoram.

UNI