Date:26/10/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/10/26/stories/2003102604461000.htm

National

When flowering spells famine

By Aarti Dhar

NEW DELHI OCT. 25. Scientific studies predicting "gregarious flowering" of bamboo in the northeast by 2006-07 is giving sleepless nights to the Ministry of Environment and Forests as the phenomenon is often associated with famines.

The flowering produces large quantities of seeds on which the rodents thrive. Soon after, seed regeneration starts and the rats shift to the fields for food. This chain is a potential cause for famine. The Ministry has held several meetings on the issue but is yet to finalise a plan of action.

A study by the Jorhat-based Rain Forest Research Institute (RFRI) has estimated that the "gregarious flowering" of Melocana Baccifera or Muli bamboo will occur in several north-eastern States in 2004 over an area of 18,000 sq.km. The States identified are Mizoram (the epicentre), Tripura, Manipur, Meghalaya and parts of Assam.

Flowering of bamboo is a botanical enigma. The factors responsible for it are still not known. The bamboo flower only once and die after flowering to regenerate from seeds. When all bamboo clumps flower simultaneously in a vast area, it is known as gregarious flowering.

There was large-scale synchronous Muli bamboo flowering in Mizoram in 1959 which was followed by a severe famine in 1960.

Again, when there was gregarious flowering of Peka bamboo in Mizoram in the late 1970s, there was a phenomenal increase in rat population. About 2.5 million rats were reported to have been killed in 1978. It is a pointer to the magnitude of the problem that is likely to arise in 2006-07.

The Institute has calculated that out of a total 26 million tonnes of bamboo available, about 10 million tonnes occur in accessible areas and can be harvested between 2004 and 2007. India has the largest bamboo resource in the world with 125 species of bamboo belonging to 23 genera and spread over an area of 10.03 million hectares or 12.8 per cent of the total forest area. In the northeast alone, there are about 58 species covering 28 per cent of the forest area.

It was the British who first noticed the amazing phenomenon of bamboo flowering and its impact on ecology. They recorded the first famine in 1862 and the second in 1881 when about 15,000 Mizos died. The 1911-12 famine was also caused by this phenomenon with similar results. The gregarious flowering of Muli bamboo in Mizoram, Tripura, Manipur and the Barak Valley of Assam in 1959 resulted in a famine that claimed 10,000 to 15,000 lives. It is also believed that the Mizo National Front movement was triggered by one such famine.