By : David Buhril
The gregarious flowering of bamboo pushed the distressed Tipaimukh villagers to confront famine-like situation, which could have been averted if the Government of Manipur had come to their aid with the funds that was allocated by the Centre to combat the phenomenon.
Rat frequently crossed the muddy Tipaimukh road as our struggling jeep negotiates the untarred and slippery National Highway 150, which shows of abject neglect. The National Highway can be mistaken for a stream, if not a pool, or a plough fields.
Pastor Lalrochung told us that with the bamboo flowering the multiplying rats population has severely invaded the rice fields, which left the agrarian population despaired. For the farming population in Tipaimukh and its adjoining areas who still practised the traditional slashed- and-burned forest slopes to grow rice, the bamboo flower is seen as the bloom of death. The rats on the long isolated road were signs of fear and hopelessness, which the impoverished sub division in Manipur’s Churachandpur district is confronting today. The gregarious flowering of bamboo produces large quantities of seeds, which were consumed by rats resulting in sudden population explosion in rats and rodents. The resultant short supply of bamboo seeds on the one hand and a large population of rats on the other compelled the rats and rodents to resort to the farmlands causing widespread loss to the crops. In the past this chain of events has caused severe famine. The natural phenomenon of bamboo flowering has been recorded to have happened in 1862, 1881, 1911-12 and 1959 too. All of them resulted in severe famine.
According to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forests 159th Report, the 1959 famine claimed between 10,000 and 15,000 lives in Mizoram, Tripura, Manipur and Barak Valley of Assam. The food insecurity and unrest in the midst of the bamboo flowering during 1958- 60 gave birth to the Mizo National Famine Front in the year 1960, who then took to arms under the banner of Mizo National Front (1961) waging for more than twenty years of arms struggle for sovereignty. While farmers distress in other parts of the country have resulted in farmers suicide, the North-East has a different experience where the despaired farmers took to arms movement asserting sovereignty. Manipur’s Tipaimukh sub-division and Mizoram are the epicentre of the dreaded natural phenomenon, the gregarious bamboo flowering, which also occur in other states of the North-East. However, for the cut-off, deprived and marginalised sub-division who are living without government, road, health centre, electricity, transport and communications, public distribution system, etc., the cyclical flowering of the Muli bamboo species that occur after every 48 years is a grim threat. The chronic poverty afflicted sub-division remains untouched by scientific and technological revolution or green revolution. In the face of that the apprehension of the population is worsened as the bamboo flowers with a clock like certainty. The people of Tipaimukh called it the return of horror or the death flower. Fear, apprehension, and anxieties grow bigger for the villagers with the gregarious bamboo flowering (Mautam) threatening them. Fear of hunger is immense. Insecurity grows taller and bigger than their hills and mountains. It gnaws them day and night when immediate alternatives and solutions, though desirable, are out of sight. The situation is worsened by the absence of any form of governance to assist the agrarian population who are already undergoing near famine situation.
Today the ghost of the death flower returns to render the distress and fear ridden Tipaimukh villagers hopeless. Singneikhum of Parvachawm village said, “I harvested only 20 tins of grain for the year’s toil. Before the bamboo flower I used to get 250 tins of grain from the same jhum field. I don’t know how my family would stand the test of our worst fear.” Lalchawilien of Leisen village said, “After the long toil we battled with rats, rodents and birds over our rice field. But there is no way to guard and protect them. We tried every little thing we could, but it was all in vain. That day my family members and I left our field late in the evening with a prayer. I had a bad dream that night. The next morning I reached to find my rice field standing without any sheaves. It was a very dark and disturbing sight. I went back home barred and heavy hearted and every step I took was like a move to an end that I did notwant to remember.” Leisen villagers were made to realize their unfortunate turn as the rats and rodents destroy their field one after the other.Hrangtlunglien also had his share of nightmare when he was left to collect share of his labour that was spared by the rats and rodents. “But they spared me too little that will not last my family for even a month. With whatever little we manage to reap it is our desire that we celebrate Christmas in October”, Hrangtlunglien said.
Zarzolien of Tipaimukh’s Leisen village said that the bamboo flowering did not only destroy their food security but also negates the man in himself. He said, “The bamboo flower reduced me like nothing else could. It is a shame that my toil would not allow me to feed my family. It is very shameful. I could not feel like a man anymore.” Zoawi of Senvon village said, “The bleak future is too dark for us. There is nothing left to hold on to. We are living our worst nightmare.”
Lalmanlien of Leisen village also said, “Rats and rodents plagued our rice fields at night. They came like angry and hungry ghost. It took them just few hours to spoil our year’s toil and left our rice field like useless grass. Many of us in the village did not even reap two tins of grain. It is alarming.” Sangneitling of Senvon village felt that the year’s harvest has no meaning at all. “Our toil was in vain”, she said, “ We knew much in advance about the bamboo flowering, but we could have no choice at all. What alternatives do you think is here in this god-forsaken place? We toil with hopes and fears. But we were made to realised fear bigger than we could ever imagine.”
The bloom of despair has driven many young men like Lalhmingmawi, Lalditum, and Siema of Sipuikawn village to look for work in Mizoram and Assam. But they move out of their homes to realise the limited avenue available for them. “We have been working all our lives in our jhum fields and we are not really good for other jobs. We came back to our empty homes looking for something like hope to keep us going. The bamboo flowering has created uncontrollable chaos within us and our homes”, Lalhmingmawi said. Siema said that he guarded his jhum field with burning torches for many nights. “I did my best, but the rats won. Today I am left with nothing. They even came to our house and gnawed our blanket, shoes and chappal, which never happen before. I was afraid. I thought they were angry with me.”
Darkung of Senvon village filled his rice field with traditional traps to get rid of the invading rats and rodents. “It is a vain effort. But what can I do? I did that with a hope, which was shattered in one dark night”, Darkung said. The trapped rats were again consumed by the distressed Tipaimukh villagers, which further exposed them to the threat of various epidemics. “They eat our rice and we also eat them if they are trapped”, Darkung said.
The plights of Manipur’s Tipaimukh villagers is deteriorated in the absence of any form of proactive intervention from the government to aid them despite the near famine situation they have already confronted. Despite the pilot-like project that was initiated by the Centre to combat the impact of bamboo flowering, not a single paisa reached the affected villagers. No government officials have visited the Tipaimukh villages to take stock of the situation in the hills and mountains where death looms large. It is shocking that food insecurity and the near-famine situation continue unabated despite the Central Government funding to bail out the region’s distressed farmers. None of the measures adopted at the power corridors to alleviate the plights of the distressed farmers made an impact. The visible insecurity has already reached a crisis situation where the rosy special packages that were announced for securing that right to food and livelihood has no meaning and relation to the distressed lot. Taking into account the money that was allocated to combat the bamboo flowering, the farmer’s distress and the near-famine situation in Tipaimukh is rather man-made than a result of natural calamities.
Hrangtlunglien of Leisen village said that no one in the village is aware about the Centre’s policy to bail them out of the near-famine situation, which the sub-division is helplessly going through. “We never knew that the government would act in such situations as we have been living without any form of government for many decades as far as my memory could remember. There is no motorable road inside our village. There is nothing, but just us. We are independent and self-reliant people. We never knew that there is something called the government to represent us. Manipur government has no meaning for us”, Hrangtlunglien said. Chala Shakum of Lungthulien village also said, “We never expect anything from the Government of Manipur. We never even count on it. It has no meaning in our lives till today.” Sangneitling questioned what a government is for the distressed villagers. Zarzolien also said that the Manipur government does not exist for them to be trusted. He said, “We are forgotten people.”
In many Tipaimukh villages the prices of rice and other basic commodities have skyrocketed beyond their reach. While the issue price of rice at Public Distribution System by the Department of Food and Civil Supplies are Rs.7.29 (APL), Rs. 6.21 (BPL), Rs. 3.47 (AAY), the same quality of rice is being sold at Rs. 16/17 per kg in various Tipaimukh villages. However, in most of the cases there is no rice to be bought at that price even. The level of food scarcity is appalling. Lalmanlien of Leisen village said that as the entire village had run out of their food stock, they collectively borrowed money as they heard about the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), which came into force in the country in February 2006. “We borrowed sixty thousand rupees and bought rice that was distributed in the village. We thought that when the guaranteed wage employment for 100 days under NREGA reaches us we would all repay again. But we are so worried as there is no talk about the 100 days work anymore and we have nothing to eat again”, Lalmanlien said. By ensuring guaranteed wage
employment for 100 days to any adult in a household who is willing to work, the NREGA is the first legislation that compels the state to provide a social safety net for the poorest people of this country and seeks to address the urgent issues of hunger and rural distress that afflict large parts of India. However, in Tipaimukh villages, there is no awareness of the entitlements of workers under the scheme such as the concept of work on demand, unemployment allowance, and the availability of work site facilities. Despite that, the state is bound to give work on demand and this is a fundamental principle of the NREGA. However, for Tipaimukh villagers to realize that it would need a strong democratic governance to ensure accountability and transparency. Despite the vain wait, NREGA was not launched to combat bamboo flowering. But the distressed villagers are trying to plot their hope in everything in the midst of their biggest fear. “It would do us best if we leave this place as there is nothing left for us here anymore. But where can we go?” Hrangtlunglien asked. Lalditum of Sipuikawn village also said, “The 100 days work scheme is just a dying rumour. Do you really think it will reach us? If the Government of Manipur is serious about saving Tipaimukh villagers, it should lose no more time and act fast.”
Various church organizations have come to the aid of the hunger-stricken Tipaimukh villagers. However, with their limited capacity in the face of the gigantic problem they could not sustain their efforts to aid the distressed villagers. There is a big vacuum, which has to be filled by the State. The Government of Manipur has to step in to aid its citizens by addressing policy issues related to the farmers’ plights. To combat the impact of bamboo flowering in different parts of Manipur, the Ministry of Environment and Forests has allocated Rs 6.9 crore and 1 crore in the year 2005-06 and 2006-07 respectively. The State will continue to receive Rs 1 crore till 2009 for the same cause. However, the funds have not reached the targeted group till today. It is not known if the Centre allocated funds for the distressed farmers were diverted, drowned or drained. In case of Tipaimukh there is a need for the government to identify the villages as distressed villages. Besides the need for taking stock of the situation, the Government of Manipur is yet to connect and link the villages with roads. Moreover, to combat the deteriorating plights of the people of Tipaimukh and other affected areas in the State, the Government of Manipur could avail funds such as Additional Central Assistance from the Planning Commission, 12th Finance Commission and, if necessary, also from the Calamity Relief Fund under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Moreover, the Government of Manipur has to intervene on a war-footing scale to develop regeneration plan, development of necessary infrastructure, survey and mapping of resource, rodent control and precautionary measures to control the spread of epidemic, awareness campaign and more urgently famine control. Not only that, the Tipaimukh villagers need a mass counselling programme on issues such changing the crop patterns and subsidiary activities other than the traditional slashed-and–burned practice, which is a threat to the environment. The Government of Manipur should act immediately knowing that its decisions and actions could save its distress citizens who are rendered hopeless by its inactivity in the face of the gregarious bamboo flowering.
The Imphal Free Press
The gregarious flowering of bamboo pushed the distressed Tipaimukh villagers to confront famine-like situation, which could have been averted if the Government of Manipur had come to their aid with the funds that was allocated by the Centre to combat the phenomenon.
Rat frequently crossed the muddy Tipaimukh road as our struggling jeep negotiates the untarred and slippery National Highway 150, which shows of abject neglect. The National Highway can be mistaken for a stream, if not a pool, or a plough fields.
Pastor Lalrochung told us that with the bamboo flowering the multiplying rats population has severely invaded the rice fields, which left the agrarian population despaired. For the farming population in Tipaimukh and its adjoining areas who still practised the traditional slashed- and-burned forest slopes to grow rice, the bamboo flower is seen as the bloom of death. The rats on the long isolated road were signs of fear and hopelessness, which the impoverished sub division in Manipur’s Churachandpur district is confronting today. The gregarious flowering of bamboo produces large quantities of seeds, which were consumed by rats resulting in sudden population explosion in rats and rodents. The resultant short supply of bamboo seeds on the one hand and a large population of rats on the other compelled the rats and rodents to resort to the farmlands causing widespread loss to the crops. In the past this chain of events has caused severe famine. The natural phenomenon of bamboo flowering has been recorded to have happened in 1862, 1881, 1911-12 and 1959 too. All of them resulted in severe famine.
According to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forests 159th Report, the 1959 famine claimed between 10,000 and 15,000 lives in Mizoram, Tripura, Manipur and Barak Valley of Assam. The food insecurity and unrest in the midst of the bamboo flowering during 1958- 60 gave birth to the Mizo National Famine Front in the year 1960, who then took to arms under the banner of Mizo National Front (1961) waging for more than twenty years of arms struggle for sovereignty. While farmers distress in other parts of the country have resulted in farmers suicide, the North-East has a different experience where the despaired farmers took to arms movement asserting sovereignty. Manipur’s Tipaimukh sub-division and Mizoram are the epicentre of the dreaded natural phenomenon, the gregarious bamboo flowering, which also occur in other states of the North-East. However, for the cut-off, deprived and marginalised sub-division who are living without government, road, health centre, electricity, transport and communications, public distribution system, etc., the cyclical flowering of the Muli bamboo species that occur after every 48 years is a grim threat. The chronic poverty afflicted sub-division remains untouched by scientific and technological revolution or green revolution. In the face of that the apprehension of the population is worsened as the bamboo flowers with a clock like certainty. The people of Tipaimukh called it the return of horror or the death flower. Fear, apprehension, and anxieties grow bigger for the villagers with the gregarious bamboo flowering (Mautam) threatening them. Fear of hunger is immense. Insecurity grows taller and bigger than their hills and mountains. It gnaws them day and night when immediate alternatives and solutions, though desirable, are out of sight. The situation is worsened by the absence of any form of governance to assist the agrarian population who are already undergoing near famine situation.
Today the ghost of the death flower returns to render the distress and fear ridden Tipaimukh villagers hopeless. Singneikhum of Parvachawm village said, “I harvested only 20 tins of grain for the year’s toil. Before the bamboo flower I used to get 250 tins of grain from the same jhum field. I don’t know how my family would stand the test of our worst fear.” Lalchawilien of Leisen village said, “After the long toil we battled with rats, rodents and birds over our rice field. But there is no way to guard and protect them. We tried every little thing we could, but it was all in vain. That day my family members and I left our field late in the evening with a prayer. I had a bad dream that night. The next morning I reached to find my rice field standing without any sheaves. It was a very dark and disturbing sight. I went back home barred and heavy hearted and every step I took was like a move to an end that I did notwant to remember.” Leisen villagers were made to realize their unfortunate turn as the rats and rodents destroy their field one after the other.Hrangtlunglien also had his share of nightmare when he was left to collect share of his labour that was spared by the rats and rodents. “But they spared me too little that will not last my family for even a month. With whatever little we manage to reap it is our desire that we celebrate Christmas in October”, Hrangtlunglien said.
Zarzolien of Tipaimukh’s Leisen village said that the bamboo flowering did not only destroy their food security but also negates the man in himself. He said, “The bamboo flower reduced me like nothing else could. It is a shame that my toil would not allow me to feed my family. It is very shameful. I could not feel like a man anymore.” Zoawi of Senvon village said, “The bleak future is too dark for us. There is nothing left to hold on to. We are living our worst nightmare.”
Lalmanlien of Leisen village also said, “Rats and rodents plagued our rice fields at night. They came like angry and hungry ghost. It took them just few hours to spoil our year’s toil and left our rice field like useless grass. Many of us in the village did not even reap two tins of grain. It is alarming.” Sangneitling of Senvon village felt that the year’s harvest has no meaning at all. “Our toil was in vain”, she said, “ We knew much in advance about the bamboo flowering, but we could have no choice at all. What alternatives do you think is here in this god-forsaken place? We toil with hopes and fears. But we were made to realised fear bigger than we could ever imagine.”
The bloom of despair has driven many young men like Lalhmingmawi, Lalditum, and Siema of Sipuikawn village to look for work in Mizoram and Assam. But they move out of their homes to realise the limited avenue available for them. “We have been working all our lives in our jhum fields and we are not really good for other jobs. We came back to our empty homes looking for something like hope to keep us going. The bamboo flowering has created uncontrollable chaos within us and our homes”, Lalhmingmawi said. Siema said that he guarded his jhum field with burning torches for many nights. “I did my best, but the rats won. Today I am left with nothing. They even came to our house and gnawed our blanket, shoes and chappal, which never happen before. I was afraid. I thought they were angry with me.”
Darkung of Senvon village filled his rice field with traditional traps to get rid of the invading rats and rodents. “It is a vain effort. But what can I do? I did that with a hope, which was shattered in one dark night”, Darkung said. The trapped rats were again consumed by the distressed Tipaimukh villagers, which further exposed them to the threat of various epidemics. “They eat our rice and we also eat them if they are trapped”, Darkung said.
The plights of Manipur’s Tipaimukh villagers is deteriorated in the absence of any form of proactive intervention from the government to aid them despite the near famine situation they have already confronted. Despite the pilot-like project that was initiated by the Centre to combat the impact of bamboo flowering, not a single paisa reached the affected villagers. No government officials have visited the Tipaimukh villages to take stock of the situation in the hills and mountains where death looms large. It is shocking that food insecurity and the near-famine situation continue unabated despite the Central Government funding to bail out the region’s distressed farmers. None of the measures adopted at the power corridors to alleviate the plights of the distressed farmers made an impact. The visible insecurity has already reached a crisis situation where the rosy special packages that were announced for securing that right to food and livelihood has no meaning and relation to the distressed lot. Taking into account the money that was allocated to combat the bamboo flowering, the farmer’s distress and the near-famine situation in Tipaimukh is rather man-made than a result of natural calamities.
Hrangtlunglien of Leisen village said that no one in the village is aware about the Centre’s policy to bail them out of the near-famine situation, which the sub-division is helplessly going through. “We never knew that the government would act in such situations as we have been living without any form of government for many decades as far as my memory could remember. There is no motorable road inside our village. There is nothing, but just us. We are independent and self-reliant people. We never knew that there is something called the government to represent us. Manipur government has no meaning for us”, Hrangtlunglien said. Chala Shakum of Lungthulien village also said, “We never expect anything from the Government of Manipur. We never even count on it. It has no meaning in our lives till today.” Sangneitling questioned what a government is for the distressed villagers. Zarzolien also said that the Manipur government does not exist for them to be trusted. He said, “We are forgotten people.”
In many Tipaimukh villages the prices of rice and other basic commodities have skyrocketed beyond their reach. While the issue price of rice at Public Distribution System by the Department of Food and Civil Supplies are Rs.7.29 (APL), Rs. 6.21 (BPL), Rs. 3.47 (AAY), the same quality of rice is being sold at Rs. 16/17 per kg in various Tipaimukh villages. However, in most of the cases there is no rice to be bought at that price even. The level of food scarcity is appalling. Lalmanlien of Leisen village said that as the entire village had run out of their food stock, they collectively borrowed money as they heard about the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), which came into force in the country in February 2006. “We borrowed sixty thousand rupees and bought rice that was distributed in the village. We thought that when the guaranteed wage employment for 100 days under NREGA reaches us we would all repay again. But we are so worried as there is no talk about the 100 days work anymore and we have nothing to eat again”, Lalmanlien said. By ensuring guaranteed wage
employment for 100 days to any adult in a household who is willing to work, the NREGA is the first legislation that compels the state to provide a social safety net for the poorest people of this country and seeks to address the urgent issues of hunger and rural distress that afflict large parts of India. However, in Tipaimukh villages, there is no awareness of the entitlements of workers under the scheme such as the concept of work on demand, unemployment allowance, and the availability of work site facilities. Despite that, the state is bound to give work on demand and this is a fundamental principle of the NREGA. However, for Tipaimukh villagers to realize that it would need a strong democratic governance to ensure accountability and transparency. Despite the vain wait, NREGA was not launched to combat bamboo flowering. But the distressed villagers are trying to plot their hope in everything in the midst of their biggest fear. “It would do us best if we leave this place as there is nothing left for us here anymore. But where can we go?” Hrangtlunglien asked. Lalditum of Sipuikawn village also said, “The 100 days work scheme is just a dying rumour. Do you really think it will reach us? If the Government of Manipur is serious about saving Tipaimukh villagers, it should lose no more time and act fast.”
Various church organizations have come to the aid of the hunger-stricken Tipaimukh villagers. However, with their limited capacity in the face of the gigantic problem they could not sustain their efforts to aid the distressed villagers. There is a big vacuum, which has to be filled by the State. The Government of Manipur has to step in to aid its citizens by addressing policy issues related to the farmers’ plights. To combat the impact of bamboo flowering in different parts of Manipur, the Ministry of Environment and Forests has allocated Rs 6.9 crore and 1 crore in the year 2005-06 and 2006-07 respectively. The State will continue to receive Rs 1 crore till 2009 for the same cause. However, the funds have not reached the targeted group till today. It is not known if the Centre allocated funds for the distressed farmers were diverted, drowned or drained. In case of Tipaimukh there is a need for the government to identify the villages as distressed villages. Besides the need for taking stock of the situation, the Government of Manipur is yet to connect and link the villages with roads. Moreover, to combat the deteriorating plights of the people of Tipaimukh and other affected areas in the State, the Government of Manipur could avail funds such as Additional Central Assistance from the Planning Commission, 12th Finance Commission and, if necessary, also from the Calamity Relief Fund under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Moreover, the Government of Manipur has to intervene on a war-footing scale to develop regeneration plan, development of necessary infrastructure, survey and mapping of resource, rodent control and precautionary measures to control the spread of epidemic, awareness campaign and more urgently famine control. Not only that, the Tipaimukh villagers need a mass counselling programme on issues such changing the crop patterns and subsidiary activities other than the traditional slashed-and–burned practice, which is a threat to the environment. The Government of Manipur should act immediately knowing that its decisions and actions could save its distress citizens who are rendered hopeless by its inactivity in the face of the gregarious bamboo flowering.
The Imphal Free Press
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