Feb - 2008
Relief, before start of famine caused by rodents’ appetite in North East IndiaRelief in the form of food-aid is reaching 600 farming families in the northeast Indian state of Mizoram - following the start of a famine caused by rodents eating the food grains as claimed by the locals.
Four states of Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura and Assam have been affected so far, but World Vision field staff assessed that only situation in Mizoram and Manipur warrants a relief response as of now.
While the natives believe that bamboo flowering is the harbinger of famine, the popular and logical belief - states that the outgoing flowering produces large quantities of seeds resulting in a population explosion of rats having short life cycles. These rodents then eat up the food grains and clean the agriculture fields, which in turn leads to famine.
As the government, the church organizations and other aid agencies are catering the immediate need of thousands of affected families – ‘In Mizoram, World Vision is considering integration of development models into its relief response which is child-focused, long term, economic based and survival oriented’, said Stevenson Khongsngi, World Vision India Associate Director – Operations.
Reports from World Vision fieldworkers says, that the situation on the ground remains grave as food is scanty and people are forced to collect yam and other wild vegetables from the rain forest to survive. ‘Economic poverty will be even bigger in the coming months – and there will be food, and health problems that the people and World Vision will need to face’, said Meren Nampuii, Programme Manager – World Vision's Chhimtuipui Area Development Programme in Mizoram.
As part of its long-term plan to help the affected population, World Vision is running a nutrition programme that is education-based and economic development activities through self-help groups.
World Vision has done in Mizoram and Manipur:
- Food aid to 420 families
- Relief and economic-based activities covered a total 47 villages so far (32 in Mizoram and 15 in Manipur)
- Education based nutrition programmes
- Economic development activities working through self-help groups.
- Assessment in another state of Tripura underway.
Threats
Based on the people’s past experience, the community foresees the impact of rat menace and the amount of damage it will have in the coming months. The threats are:
- Health epidemic
- Dry forest
- Forest fire
- Deforestation
- No income source for villagers
- No agricultural crop production
- Famine
More about Bamboo flowering, the rats and the famine: From past experiences, bamboo flowering in northeast India is usually accompanied by considerable increase of rodent population. The destruction of food crops results in food scarcity and famine. The epidemiological imbalance also leads to increased risk of infection or outbreaks of rodent borne diseases.
The modes of transmission of these diseases are through rat bite, fleas and other ecto-parasites or contamination of food, water and air by rodent urine or excreta. It is a cause for concern that gastroenteritis is still the second leading cause of morbidity despite other high socio-economic indicators indicating the unsafe eating and drinking practices. The risk of infection by these diseases is very high since people in Mizoram and Manipur come in close contact with rodents including handling or consumption of their flesh. Some of these diseases are epidemic prone requiring immediate control and some are highly fatal. Rabies is fatal.
Population explosion of rats continues to threaten the food security of the people. Local media reported that 6600 hectares of agriculture land have been affected by rat menace and bamboo flowering in Mizoram as on August 2007 and the extension is surely bigger by February 2008.
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