A rare phenomenon—gregarious flowering of bamboo plants—is setting off alarm bells in the Northeast, leading to fear of a rodent menace. Flowering on such a scale, which takes place after years and over a long period, has been noticed in Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh.Unlike other plants, flowering in bamboo adversely affects the plant, producing large quantity of seeds. The seeds attract rodents, which turn to other crops, leading to largescale destruction. The last such flowering was followed by a famine in Mizoram.A worried Agriculture Ministry has sent an advisory asking the states to take steps, including use of rodenticide, to nip the problem in the bud. What is worrying the ministry, however, is that some states are reluctant to use rodenticides as they make rat meat unfit for human consumption.Mizoram Finance Secretary Mulfawma said: ‘‘Real flowering is expected next year but in areas where it has already started we are trying to harvest the bamboo as quickly as possible. The priority is harvesting. We have not yet seen an upsurge of rodents. There is no question of using rodenticides until it happens.’’In Arunachal Pradesh, the East Kamang district has already been affected by increase in rodent population leading to widespread damage to crops. The Agriculture Ministry had sent a team to East Kamang and is preparing an action plan with the help of a rodent specialist.The Rain Forest Research Institute, Jorhat, under the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education, Dehradun, had estimated that gregarious flowering of Muli Bamboo would occur in an area of about 18,000 sq. km. in Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura between 2004-07.The ministry officials say that so far, apart from the one district in Arunachal and isolated pockets in Mizoram, other areas are not affected. Arunachal Pradesh has already sought Central funds to tackle the problem. Earlier in the year, the Centre had prepared a Rs 105-cr action plan to tackle the problem and set up a steering committee. The major components of the action plan include resource survey and mapping, resource extraction and management, resource utilisation, regeneration plan, rodent control and precautionary measures to control spread of epidemic, famine control.Bamboo forests in India are spread over 10.03 million hectares—12.8% of the total forest area.
