VBlogs: Mizoram DIARY - II

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Bamboo = Ballot
About 6 months back, it was disaster in the making. 'Mautam' was threatening, in some places, already happening. Because Melocanna baccifera was flowering.

And when it flowers, it usually wreaks havoc. Experts say that it flowers synchronously - once every 48 years, that's some respite. Because the rats love it when it flowers - the rich protein content in the fruit of the wild speices of bamboo, locally known as 'Mautam' (Famine), increases the rats' reproductive power, and, when they are done with the fruits, the rats turn their attention to farmers' crops, mostly rice.

The last time the bamboo flowered in Mizoram, bringing a plague of rats, was in 1958. The resultant famine provoked a 20-year guerrilla war between the disgruntled Mizo people and the government in New Delhi.

Rats decimated paddy fields across the region, leading to severe food shortages. New Delhi brushed off local warnings of a famine as tribal superstition.

It led to the birth of the Mizo National Famine Front, an organisation set up to meet food shortages but which ended up fighting the Indian government for independence. By the time they took up arms, Famine was no longer part of the nomenclature.

This time round, the biggest difference was possibly a man who was a leader of in insurgency. Zoramthanga, the Chief Minister. He ensured that despite acute food shortage, there were no starvation deaths.