Imphal, April 21: As large tracts of bamboo belts in the State have started flowering causing widespread apprehension among the people of acute food scarcity, the State Level Bamboo Co-ordinating Committee has geared up to combat the disastrous event.

In addition to other initiatives to control explosion of rodent population, the Forest Department, a key constituent of the Committee, is currently engaged in mixed plantation of bamboos in the whole bamboo belts covering Churachandpur, Chandel and Tamenglong districts and Jiribam sub-division.

According to Conservator of Forest (Bamboo), Konjengbam Jagadishwor, almost 70 to 80 percent of the whole bamboo belts spread across the four districts have flowered and most of them have matured into fruits.

About 80 percent of the flowering bamboos are of Mouvi Wa (Melocana Baccifera) species, said Jagadishwor adding that bamboo flowering is a natural phenomenon occurring once in every 49 or 50 years.

Bamboo flowering signals the end of its life span.

After a bamboo plant has flowered, it will dry up and its fruit would ultimately fall on the ground which then is eaten by rodents.

These bamboo fruits increase the fertility of rodents.

Consequently, the population of rodents get multiplied within a short time.

The huge population of rodents would then start attacking granaries and standing crops, thereby causing extensive damage to crops, he elaborated.

Even though there is no report of rodents attacking standing crops or granaries till date, there is strong possibility of rodents causing havoc in the next harvesting season.

At present, the Forest Department is engaging in mixed plantation of better species of bamboo in the vicinity of the areas covered by flowering bamboos.

So far 2640 hectares of forest lands have been covered by mixed plantation of bamboos including species like Saneibi and Ching Saneibi, Jagadishwor informed.

"We are targeting to cover the whole 4074 hectares of land by next year", he said while adding that after a few years, these better species of bamboo would gradually replace Mouvi Wa in these areas.

Hundreds of local villagers are being engaged in the extensive mixed plantation drive.

Moreover, the Dept has also been conducting rodent control programmes and awareness camps at the affected areas.

Meanwhile, other constituent units of the Committee like the Veterinary and Animal Husbandry, FCS, Commerce and Industries, Remote Sensing, Planning, Agriculture and other Depts have expedited their tasks in a concerted effort to avert a possible natural disaster.

A team of Forest Dept officials including himself would visit the affected areas very soon to access and evaluate the ongoing initiatives, added the Conservator.

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