The word “Mau” means bamboo and “Taam” can mean drying or death in great numbers, or famine or scarcity. The combination of these two words – “Mautaam” can mean two different things namely, the mass dying of bamboos causing scarcity of it or, famine caused by or associated with the mass dying of bamboo. To me, the latter seems to be the more appropriate meaning. In the affected area bamboos flower, produce seed and die. The rat population multiplies wreaking havoc particularly on the paddy crop. A number of studies and research have been conducted to find out if there is any correlation between the flowering and seeding of bamboo and the increase in rat population, and to be specific, whether bamboo seeds cause super-fertility in rats and make them reproduce in hundreds or thousands. Though it is suspected that thee is some correlation between the two, so far no such link has been established.
The year was 1959. I was studying in Songtal village, but had to come back midyear due to unavoidable circumstances that will be narrated later. So I helped my father in the jhum field. In our group of jhum fields, the activity of rats began from the middle of the year, cutting and spoiling the paddy plants. Having no alternative, we continued weeding and tending the field in the hope that there would be at least something to harvest. However, all the paddy plants were decimated even before the flowering season.
Far away from our jhum field there was another group of fields one of which belonged to the family of one of my paternal aunts. In those fields, the paddy crop was good and no rodent activity was noticed throughout the weeding season. Normally, after the weeding seasons and until harvest time, people seldom go to the field. They only go occasionally to the filed to collect vegetables, or to see if the crop is ready for harvest. In that year, one fine Friday morning, a small group of people set out for these group of fields to see if their paddy crop was ready for harvest. The crop had fully ripened. It was good. My aunt’s family expected to harvest about 1000 tins or 330 baskets, a good harvest by any standard. Harvesting was to start from the next Monday.
As Monday arrived, the owners of those jhum fields and we-their close relatives set out in full strength to harvest in the shortest possible time before the rats could do any damage to the crop. We, their relatives who had already lost our crops were expecting to carry home one basket of paddy each for ourselves as a bonus. But alas! Within the previous two or three nights the entire crop had been decimated by the rats. When we reached the field, hardly any standing crop was to be seen. It had all vanished as if the Sarcars-the great magicians of Kolkata had played their vanishing trick with the crop. But it was not magic; it was all too real. After gleaning carefully whatever little had been left behind by the rats, only seven baskets full of paddy could be collected from the field of my aunt’s family – far short of the expected 330 baskets. It was worse with the neighbouring smaller fields. I fully realized what mautaam means.
Though India was still in great deficit of foodgrains and finance, the government was better geared to take up some relief measures. Food gains were air-dropped in some centres to be given to famine affected villages under `food for work programme.’ Under the scheme, food grains were given to people in exchange for public utility works. But air-dropping centres were so few and far between that many villagers had to travel 15-20 kilometers on foot to collect the foodgrains. Small amounts of loans were nothing but grants as no attempts were made to recover.
In the years that followed, mautam spread to the neighbouring Lushai Hills (now Mizoram) and some adjoining parts of Manipur, causing very severe famine. By then our area had partly recovered from its effects and a majority of the households had foodgrain enough to meet their annual requirement. Some even had surplus. One’s misfortune is another’s fortune. Streams of people from the affected areas flowed into our area in search of paddy and they were ready to pay any price for it. Those who had no cash bartered their valuables, particularly household items in exchange for small quantities of paddy. For instance, a nicely woven basket was bartered for its full measures of paddy. I was out and out a seller’s market. It was so lucrative that even those who did not have enough for themselves were tempted to part with their stock, expecting that good harvests would follow that would enable them to tide over. While some did not have enough for themselves were tempted to part with their stock, expecting that good harvests would follow that would enable them to tide over. While some did it out of greed and tried to exploit the situation to maximum advantage, some others did it out of sympathy and humanitarian consideration, or because of being pressurized by the customers.
The grim situation in Lushai Hills which was then part Assam was compounded by the apathetic attitude, neglect, and the inefficient handling of relief measures by the state government which resulted in the Mizo armed struggle for independence. The Mizo National Relief Front which was formed to handle famine relief measures was later converted into the Mizo National Front which launched a full scale armed rebellion by declaring independence. Thus stared the Mizo under ground movement in 1963.
In the year 2003, Vangai region – a small pocket in the south-west corner of Manipur along its boundary with Assam was affected by mautaam. No harm was caused to the standing early variety of paddy crop till August 19 and it was almost ready for harvest. But suddenly, heightened activity of rats was noticed from August 20. Accordingly to eye witness accounts, great multitudes of rats swarmed the fields by night, playing and frolicking with the crop, jumping from one plant to the other and cutting the ears merrily without even harming he steams. The noise produced by the movement of the rats was like the deafening noise produced by a bamboo jungle on fire. The farmers tried their best to guard and protect their crops at night time using torchlights, hurricane lamps, and holding sticks to kill the rats. But they were no match for the countless number of rats that covered the whole surface of the fields. This was the first time ever during mautaam that the invading rats were encountered at such close quarters. In just three days the whole crop was completely destroyed. As the crop vanished, the rats also vanished.
When there is such an extraordinarily large rat population that can destroy and consumer the whole paddy crop in large area in a matter of two or three nights, one would naturally expect to come across many of them even by day time and find many rat holes in the fields and the surrounding areas. The mystery, how-ever, is the except when they are in action as described above, no extraordinary number of rats or rat holes are to be seen. It is as if they appear from nowhere and disappear magically after performing their dance of destruction leaving no trace behind except the ravaged fields.
As I write these lines about mautaam, there are reports of the flowering and dying of bamboo in these same areas of Manipur and Mizoram. Another specter of the dreaded mautaam and its twin curse of famine is round the corner once again. It is yet to be seen how the people and the government gear themselves up to handle the impending calamity effectively.
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SHRI MANI CHARENAMEI (OUTER MANIPUR): Sir, I would like to draw the attention of the Government to a situation that is prevailing in the State of Manipur due to bamboo flowering.
Bamboo is grown in the districts of Tamenglong, Churachandpur and Chandel. In these districts the activity of growing bamboo flowers has been going on since 2005 till today. Due to this grey grass flowering, the number of rodents has multiplied. These rodents have destroyed the food grains, particularly the paddy fields in the hills. Due to that many of these tribal people, living in the remote areas, are suffering from starvation and famine-like situation. Here, most of the families, that is 95 per cent of the families, belong to the BPL. They are very poor. Their buying capacity is also very poor. So, the Government has to rush essential commodities, particularly rice, to these sub-divisions, namely Thanlon, Tipaimukh, Parbung and Henglep of Churachandpur District and Toushem, Tamei and Nungba sub-divisions of Tamenglong district. People are living on wild fruits and wild vegetables in the jungles.
So, I urge upon the Government to send a team from the Centre to assess the loss of food grains and also to find out a permanent solution to this problem.
Sir, you may also remember that insurgency started in Mizoram because of this bamboo flowering. This has created a lot of problems in the North-East. So, I would like to urge upon and also draw the attention of the Government to do something for these people, who are languishing.
MR. SPEAKER: I am sure the Government will take notice of it
Click here to view Survey Report.
Visit www.mautaam.org
The year was 1959. I was studying in Songtal village, but had to come back midyear due to unavoidable circumstances that will be narrated later. So I helped my father in the jhum field. In our group of jhum fields, the activity of rats began from the middle of the year, cutting and spoiling the paddy plants. Having no alternative, we continued weeding and tending the field in the hope that there would be at least something to harvest. However, all the paddy plants were decimated even before the flowering season.
Far away from our jhum field there was another group of fields one of which belonged to the family of one of my paternal aunts. In those fields, the paddy crop was good and no rodent activity was noticed throughout the weeding season. Normally, after the weeding seasons and until harvest time, people seldom go to the field. They only go occasionally to the filed to collect vegetables, or to see if the crop is ready for harvest. In that year, one fine Friday morning, a small group of people set out for these group of fields to see if their paddy crop was ready for harvest. The crop had fully ripened. It was good. My aunt’s family expected to harvest about 1000 tins or 330 baskets, a good harvest by any standard. Harvesting was to start from the next Monday.
As Monday arrived, the owners of those jhum fields and we-their close relatives set out in full strength to harvest in the shortest possible time before the rats could do any damage to the crop. We, their relatives who had already lost our crops were expecting to carry home one basket of paddy each for ourselves as a bonus. But alas! Within the previous two or three nights the entire crop had been decimated by the rats. When we reached the field, hardly any standing crop was to be seen. It had all vanished as if the Sarcars-the great magicians of Kolkata had played their vanishing trick with the crop. But it was not magic; it was all too real. After gleaning carefully whatever little had been left behind by the rats, only seven baskets full of paddy could be collected from the field of my aunt’s family – far short of the expected 330 baskets. It was worse with the neighbouring smaller fields. I fully realized what mautaam means.
Though India was still in great deficit of foodgrains and finance, the government was better geared to take up some relief measures. Food gains were air-dropped in some centres to be given to famine affected villages under `food for work programme.’ Under the scheme, food grains were given to people in exchange for public utility works. But air-dropping centres were so few and far between that many villagers had to travel 15-20 kilometers on foot to collect the foodgrains. Small amounts of loans were nothing but grants as no attempts were made to recover.
In the years that followed, mautam spread to the neighbouring Lushai Hills (now Mizoram) and some adjoining parts of Manipur, causing very severe famine. By then our area had partly recovered from its effects and a majority of the households had foodgrain enough to meet their annual requirement. Some even had surplus. One’s misfortune is another’s fortune. Streams of people from the affected areas flowed into our area in search of paddy and they were ready to pay any price for it. Those who had no cash bartered their valuables, particularly household items in exchange for small quantities of paddy. For instance, a nicely woven basket was bartered for its full measures of paddy. I was out and out a seller’s market. It was so lucrative that even those who did not have enough for themselves were tempted to part with their stock, expecting that good harvests would follow that would enable them to tide over. While some did not have enough for themselves were tempted to part with their stock, expecting that good harvests would follow that would enable them to tide over. While some did it out of greed and tried to exploit the situation to maximum advantage, some others did it out of sympathy and humanitarian consideration, or because of being pressurized by the customers.
The grim situation in Lushai Hills which was then part Assam was compounded by the apathetic attitude, neglect, and the inefficient handling of relief measures by the state government which resulted in the Mizo armed struggle for independence. The Mizo National Relief Front which was formed to handle famine relief measures was later converted into the Mizo National Front which launched a full scale armed rebellion by declaring independence. Thus stared the Mizo under ground movement in 1963.
In the year 2003, Vangai region – a small pocket in the south-west corner of Manipur along its boundary with Assam was affected by mautaam. No harm was caused to the standing early variety of paddy crop till August 19 and it was almost ready for harvest. But suddenly, heightened activity of rats was noticed from August 20. Accordingly to eye witness accounts, great multitudes of rats swarmed the fields by night, playing and frolicking with the crop, jumping from one plant to the other and cutting the ears merrily without even harming he steams. The noise produced by the movement of the rats was like the deafening noise produced by a bamboo jungle on fire. The farmers tried their best to guard and protect their crops at night time using torchlights, hurricane lamps, and holding sticks to kill the rats. But they were no match for the countless number of rats that covered the whole surface of the fields. This was the first time ever during mautaam that the invading rats were encountered at such close quarters. In just three days the whole crop was completely destroyed. As the crop vanished, the rats also vanished.
When there is such an extraordinarily large rat population that can destroy and consumer the whole paddy crop in large area in a matter of two or three nights, one would naturally expect to come across many of them even by day time and find many rat holes in the fields and the surrounding areas. The mystery, how-ever, is the except when they are in action as described above, no extraordinary number of rats or rat holes are to be seen. It is as if they appear from nowhere and disappear magically after performing their dance of destruction leaving no trace behind except the ravaged fields.
As I write these lines about mautaam, there are reports of the flowering and dying of bamboo in these same areas of Manipur and Mizoram. Another specter of the dreaded mautaam and its twin curse of famine is round the corner once again. It is yet to be seen how the people and the government gear themselves up to handle the impending calamity effectively.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SHRI MANI CHARENAMEI (OUTER MANIPUR): Sir, I would like to draw the attention of the Government to a situation that is prevailing in the State of Manipur due to bamboo flowering.
Bamboo is grown in the districts of Tamenglong, Churachandpur and Chandel. In these districts the activity of growing bamboo flowers has been going on since 2005 till today. Due to this grey grass flowering, the number of rodents has multiplied. These rodents have destroyed the food grains, particularly the paddy fields in the hills. Due to that many of these tribal people, living in the remote areas, are suffering from starvation and famine-like situation. Here, most of the families, that is 95 per cent of the families, belong to the BPL. They are very poor. Their buying capacity is also very poor. So, the Government has to rush essential commodities, particularly rice, to these sub-divisions, namely Thanlon, Tipaimukh, Parbung and Henglep of Churachandpur District and Toushem, Tamei and Nungba sub-divisions of Tamenglong district. People are living on wild fruits and wild vegetables in the jungles.
So, I urge upon the Government to send a team from the Centre to assess the loss of food grains and also to find out a permanent solution to this problem.
Sir, you may also remember that insurgency started in Mizoram because of this bamboo flowering. This has created a lot of problems in the North-East. So, I would like to urge upon and also draw the attention of the Government to do something for these people, who are languishing.
MR. SPEAKER: I am sure the Government will take notice of it
Click here to view Survey Report.
Visit www.mautaam.org
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