Bamboo Bane

KALA SAMBASIVAN

Settlers in the hilly region of the North East found the place exotic. There were evergreens, timber trees and over a hundred varieties of bamboo.

Come listen to yet another tale from your old langur story-teller!

It is a tale that I never tire of repeating for it is about an incredibly beautiful place in which lurks the shadow of Death.

Many hundreds of years ago, large groups of people from China moved south to find new homes. Some settled in Myanmar; some went further west into India. There in the hilly region of the northeast, they found a homeland that they named Mizoram or the “Land of Highlanders”. They couldn't have imagined a more exotic place than this tiny piece of land! The new settlers hoped for a prosperous and peaceful life. And why not? Trust an old langur when he tells you that Mizoram has everything any man or monkey would want.

On the slopes of the Mizo Hills they found evergreens, timber trees and over a hundred different varieties of bamboo. The dense forests sheltered tigers, elephants, bears, leopards and of course, monkeys. Colourful birds and butterflies filled forests and valleys, in which grew orchids, geraniums and many other flowers. Heavy monsoon rains helped them farm the land. Yes, life was wonderful for the people till 1869 when the Mull bamboo bloomed in the forests.

Blooming problem

Young ones, before I continue my story, I have to tell you a little about the bamboo plant. Have you seen one in a forest? Probably not. The hollow, woody stem is green as the plant has no leaves till it reaches its full height. Some grow to only three feet, others grow to be 50-ft giants. Some flower every year and some only once in 10,000 years! But one thing is the same for all bamboos — they bloom and die once new seeds are formed. The old bamboo makes room for new ones in the same place.

Back to my story.

The Mull bamboo blooms once every 50 years or so. When it gave out big clumps of flowers all at the same time, the Mizo people were mesmerised. They had never seen anything so beautiful before. In time the blooms produced millions of seeds. That was the start of a huge problem. From nowhere it seemed, a thousand rats appeared to feed on the protein-rich seeds. Soon, a thousand rats became ten thousand rats; and ten thousand became a hundred thousand and so on. Mizoram had a rat attack. The hungry rodents ate bamboo seeds, grains from fields, granaries and homes. There was no stopping them. There was nothing left for man and other animals. Many died of starvation. It was an unbelievable tragedy.

Did it happen again? Yes, the bamboo bloomed again in 1911. Another famine for the people. It happened yet again in 1959; and guess what, between 2006 and 2008, flowers appeared on mull bamboo. What will happen now?

I don't know. . . looks like there is no easy solution to this problem.

But, children, I ask you as a disinterested monkey, did rats enter the land of people or did people migrate to the land of the rats?