Danger

Kohima, July 17: En masse bamboo flowering, which occurs once in every 50 years, has left lush green bamboo forests barren in different parts of Nagaland’s Mokokchung district, even as the state prepares to host a bamboo festival in September.

The phenomenon of synchronised bamboo flowering in one of the bamboo species — Bambusa pallida, (known as ashi in Ao language) — has affected vast bamboo forests at Changki, Mangmetong, Debuia and Lirmen.

Elderly people with considerable knowledge of this unusual occurrence of synchronised bamboo flowering and seeding said this particular bamboo species had last flowered in 1962.

While Tzürangkong, Japukong, Changkikong and parts of Ongpangkong subdivision are witnessing massive flowering and seeding, gregarious bamboo flowering of ashi is yet to occur in other parts of the district.

Sources said not a single bamboo shoot sprouted from ashi last year, thus sending a clear signal that time has come for the phenomenon of synchronised flowering of the species to occur.

They said bamboo flowering en masse leads to famine (mautam) and sickness as people experienced in the past in different parts of the district when ashi had last flowered.

In 1962, flowering of ashi took place in the district, resulting in a population explosion of rats and other insects and destroying standing crop in the fields, which, in turn, led to a famine. In many villages, it is said, people relied on wild yam and forest tubers as an alternative to rice. However, the famine experienced in the district was not as severe as the one in Mizoram in 1958-59.

The shedding of leaf in the bamboo species, a precursor to the flowering, started after the rainy season last year. By February this year,clumps of ashi transformed into a huge inflorescence and started bearing edible wheat kernel-like seeds and abundantly spread on the floor of the forests leading to attract the seed predators, mostly rats, to feast on them.

One of the unusual things associated with flowering of ashi is that an edible insect (stinkbug), known by Ao people as polo, appeared in many places in the district. In Lirmen, swarms of this insect appeared on a hilltop, known as polo temen (hill). Similar swarms of the same insect were also found in Debuia and Mongchen villages.

Imtinuchet Ao of Khar village said bamboo seeds which fall on the floor of the forest have started germinating, turning the forest lush green with bamboo seedlings. He said bamboo flowering is always followed by unprecedented increase in the population of animals, particularly rats and also birds. Sources from Debuia village said there has been an increase in the population of jungle fowl following the phenomenon.

The agriculture department has taken steps to keep the rodents under control in almost all the villages in the district.

District agriculture officer, Mokokchung, Bendangtemsu Ao, said there was a report of increase in rat population from Mangmetong, Aliba, Longjang and Sungratsu villages and the department has taken steps to arrest the explosion of rat population by using chemicals and local devices.