Bamboo bloom spells doom for Mizoram villages

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Many Mizo villages are surviving on one meal a day.

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Lawngtlai (Mizoram): In an election year, Mizoram is facing its worst famine in years. Following a bamboo flowering phenomenon and an increase in rat population, there has been an acute shortage of food grains.

More than one lakh people go hungry everyday and many villages are surviving on one meal a day.

"My biggest worry is this famine which affects Mizoram and this year it's the greatest problem I am facing. With the famine I face elections," says Mizoram CM Zoramthanga

Part of the destruction has been caused by bamboo bloom with rats destroying entire crops, grain bins, fruits, even houses. Known as Mautam - which in Mizo means death of the bamboo – the phenomenon occurs every 48 years.

However, even prior knowledge does not help. "There is a desperate need for international agencies to give more relief. The government is doing its little bit. But only a little bit. There’s obviously a need for more relief. The government needs to move into these villages,” says Action Aid officer Mrinal Gohain.

Meet Phodoti. It's an eight-hour walk for her to collect food. After much bargaining, she manages a sack of rice. She will now cross the forest, the river and then climb up to reach her village that borders Myanmar. Not a penny of Central or state funds reaches this corner that's fighting hunger everyday.

Money was released to build roads under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act but they were never built

"We have no money to buy government ration. All our crops have been destroyed. We search for food everyday,” says Phodoti

With the onset of the monsoon will start landslides and villages bordering Myanmar and Bangladesh will be totally cut off, making things worse for people desperately short of food.