Aizawl, Apr 22 : Village elders used to predict that, while the year 2007 would be ‘A seh zawh kum’ or peak of the ‘Mautam,’ a local term for gregarious bamboo flowering, 2008 would be the year of harvest boom, the prediction may prove to be wrong this time, says James Lalsiamliana, an expert on pest control.
Lalsiamliana’s worst fears are based on reports that ‘Dendrocalamus Hamiltoni,’ locally known as ‘Phulrua’ flowered in the last quarter of last year and the seeds are on the ground now even as ‘melocanna baccifera’ or ‘Mautak’ has completed flowering.
“As happened in the late 1950s the rodents that caused so much destruction to the cultivation area during 2007 were expected to die en masse due to liver disease as they would not find anything to eat during January to April,” he said, adding that now they found food in the form of the seeds of ‘Phulua’.
He said that even wild boars and jungle fowls devoured the seeds of Phulrua and many villagers reported increase of wild boar and jungle fowl population in their areas after Phulrua flowered.
“Phulrua flowered sporadically since 2000 but this year it is gregarious flowering,” Lalsiamliana said, adding that the species is found almost everywhere in the river valleys.
However, C Ramhluna, the state Principal Chief conservator of forests does not believe that the flowering of Phulua would lead to repetition of rat menace.
“No study has revealed that rats ate Dendrocalamus Hamiltoni and even if it is so, the population of this bamboo species is too small to re-trigger rodent menace,” he said.
But Lalsiamliana maintains that the rats eating the seeds of Phulrua can be seen even now in Seling area near Aizwal at dusk and he had documented the scene with his camera.
“I know that this kind of bamboo constituted only around five percent of the total bamboo population in the state, but the effects of its gregarious flowering can be disastrous, because it can mean the survival of the rats” he says.
He is worried that there have not been reports of rodents dying but there are reports rats still in the jungles, might be savouring the seeds of Phulrua.
Besides those killed with mass poisoning with rode rodenticides before and during paddy harvest last year, no reports have been received from any village that indicated mass death of rats as reported in earlier ‘Mautams,’ he said.
Mautam affected 1,41,825 agrarian families in Mizoram and as per the estimate of the state government destroyed Rs 67,201.98 lakh worth of crops during 2006-2008.
The state government spent Rs 29.65 lakh for purchasing rodent tails, which failed to effectively mitigate the destruction caused by the periodic ‘Mautam’ famine.
Mautam is a strange ecological phenomenon, which occurred in this tiny hilly northeastern state in a cycle of every 48 years causing immense hardship to the agrarian tribals.
Official estimates said that there are around 20 different bamboo species in the state which covered an area of around 6,446 sq km (about 31 percent of the state’s total area).
Mautak or melocanna baccifera, which began to flower in the state since 2006 and climaxed in 2007 comprised of around 95 percent of the total bamboo population in the state.
Mizo elders, speaking after experiencing earlier Mautam famine, named the year after the climax of Mautam as ‘A V R Kum’ or a year of boom in harvest, but it is yet to be seen whether the traditional prediction comes true this time.
Bureau Report
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