Hunger stalks
Mizoram – rat plague
triggers food crisis
It evokes images of
the legend of the
Pied Piper of
Hamlin, but for the
tribal villagers
living on the land
that has been
overrun by rats, it
is time of hunger,
disease and anxiety.
Hundreds of families
in far-flung areas
of Mizoram, in the
northeastern region
of India are facing
food shortages. Some
are barely eking out
one meal a day.
Crops including
rice, maize and
vegetables have been
wiped out as
flowering of bamboo
in the region caused
an explosion of
rodent population.
“All
our crops were eaten
by the rats. We
couldn’t save
anything,”
says
Binondo, who lives
with eight family
members in Bawngva
village, Mamit
district.
Relief too slow
Supplies are
reaching villagers
at an achingly slow
pace due to
inaccessible terrain
and short supply of
food grains within
Mizoram.
An ActionAid
assessment team
reported in March
that 80,000 to
100,000 people in
the state are going
hungry.
"There are clear
signs of a crisis
unfolding. Reports
of acute food
shortages in pockets
adjoining borders
with Myanmar and
Bangladesh are
coming in.
“Villages in
Lawngtlai district
are in a
particularly bad
shape, with people
surviving by
foraging in the
forest since October
last year,"
says
Mrinal Gohain,
Regional Manager
North East,
ActionAid.
The deputy
commissioner of
Lawngtlai district
concurs that close
to a 100 of the 156
villages are in a
"serious crisis".
One rupee per rat
tail
Flowering of bamboo
brakes, which cover
31 percent of the
state, occurs once
every 48 years. Rats
feast on these
protein-rich flowers
leading to massive
increase in their
population. But the
rats soon turn to
crops and food
stored in homes and
out houses.
The flowering that
began in 2007 was
preceded by media
reports and seminars
and the state
government launched
special "Bamboo
Flowering and Famine
Control Schemes".
But measures
including early
harvesting of
bamboo, diversifying
to non-food crops,
and announcing a
reward of one rupee
for each rat tail,
had little impact.
Distress selling
Distress sales of
land and property
are being reported
across the state as
farmers exhaust
their reserves.
Buyers are usually
traders and
government
officials.
"The
local fishing pond
provided seasonal
income in our
village but now even
that is up for sale,
at far below the
market rate. Last
year’s floods
destroyed wet rice
fields and dealt a
severe blow to
fishing stocks. Now
it is desperate
time,"
a man
from Darlak village,
Mamit district told
the assesment team.
A large number of
families who
practice slash and
burn cultivation say
they cannot prepare
for the next crop as
the rat menace is
still not past its
worst.
“People do not have
food for tomorrow.
We are afraid to
plant anything
because the rats
consume everything,
even cash crops like
oranges and
vegetables like
pumpkins and
chilies,”
said J Rochunga, a
man from the Lai
community in Poithar
village in the
Lawngtlai district.
Photo credit: Kazu/ActionAid
