Death blooms

AS occasional bamboo flowers bloom across Mizoram, the old dread returns. Last time that happened, it resulted in an armed uprising by the M...

AS occasional bamboo flowers bloom across Mizoram, the old dread returns. Last time that happened, it resulted in an armed uprising by the Mizo National Front that lasted for twenty years.

This time the state has launched a virtual war on this natural phenomemon. So what is this battle of the flowers?

Bamboo flowering is a botanical enigma that has in some ways shaped the history of the state. 8216;Mautam8217;, as it is locally called, is flowering of the bamboo that happens every 48 years. It gets with it millions of rats who feed on the bamboo seeds that come after the flowers, multiply rapidly and attack paddy fields and granaries. Usually the end result is a famine.

After 1910-12, Mautam returned to the state in 1958-59. Its next visit is to be 2005-07. The state government has already prepared a Rs 550 crore programme so that even as bamboo flowers and the rats arrive, Mizoram would be spared another famine.

BAMBOO flowering is considered ominous in our society, and we not only experienced a severe famine because of the rapid multiplication of rodent population in the 1960s, but also the worst kind of armed conflict,8217;8217; says state chief secretary HV Lalringa, who is also the nodal officer of Bamboo Flowering 038; Famine Combat Scheme BAFFACOS, set up by the state government to combat bamboo blooms.

8216;8216;Our last experience was horrible,8217;8217; remembers chief secretary Lalringa. Many feel the then Assam government in Shillong failed to understand the gravity of famine in the Lushai Hills district as Mizoram was known earlier, a situation that led to an armed separatist movement that lasted two decades.

BATTLE OF THE BAMBOO

8226; Bamboo Flowering 038; Famine Combat Scheme BAFFACOS set up
8226; The state has allocated Rs 550 crore to deal with the flowering and its effect
8226; A Rs 5-crore unit set up with Taiwanese collaboration to be inaugurated soon. It will produce bamboo boards and other building material. Smaller units will produce toothpicks and agarbatti sticks
8226; Plan to build bamboo link roads over next month to speed up the harvest before the flowering

Story continues below this ad

BAFFACOS, a five-year programme, gives top priority to simultaneous extraction of bamboo before it perishes due to flowering and creating income-generating schemes.

8216;8216;We are encouraging people to grow crops other than paddy. Godowns are being built in every district to store buffer stock of food in order to meet any exigency,8217;8217; adds Lalringa.

Departments like agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, sericulture, industry and public works have been asked to work together.

Chief minister Zoramthanga who has seen the earlier famine closely, has convinced Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia to release more funds so that a network of 8216;bamboo link roads8217; was in place in another six months to harvest as much bamboo as possible before the entire stock covering about 6446 sq km area perishes once they flower.

Story continues below this ad

Zoramthanga, who8217;s being called 8216;bamboo chief minister8217;, these days can8217;t afford to take it easy. By the time the flowering ends, the state would have to start preparing for the 2008 assembly election.