Silchar, July 25: Rodents have caused extensive damage to paddy at a village in Champhai district on the Mizoram-Myanmar border, signalling an early beginning to the impending mautam (famine), which experts had predicted would occur next year.

Villagers of Tualte said rats ate paddy stems last week, damaging the plants just before harvest. Incursion of a large number of bugs, locally known as thangsi, was also reported from Khawdungsei village on the Mizoram-Manipur border.

Caterpillars are on a rampage in four districts in Mizoram, raising the spectre of a possible crop loss and imminent famine.

James Lalsiamliana, a plant protection officer in the state?s agriculture department, confirmed that the outbreak of the depredations of this insect has been noticed in Aizawl, Champhai, Sherchhip and Kolasib districts.

The unease of the agricultural scientists in the state has also been accentuated by the sudden appearance of swarms of grasshoppers, which are notorious for destroying paddy seedlings.

Scientists in Mizoram have been attaching much importance to this phenomenon of the swarming of the paddy-fields by both the caterpillars and grasshoppers, since the Mizos, from a knowledge born of experience, are sure that their combined arrival would herald subsequent famine.

The mautam, which occurs every 50 years, involves the blooming of mauve-coloured bamboo flowers, which are a staple food of rats.

The rodents, which feed on the flowers and their fruits,give birth to litters of numerous progenies. As these grow older, they destroy paddy and vegetables, triggering a famine-like situation. The whole of Mizoram had earlier reeled under such a calamity in the early Sixties.

Lalsiamliana said the caterpillars are also known in Mizoram as the leaf-rollers (hnahkhawr pangang) as they tend to roll the leaves of the paddy, damaging their chlorophyll content ? an important ingredient for the ripening of the paddy crop.

Reports of the menace are reaching Aizawl, signalling chances of the phenomenal growth in the rodent population.

The state government has constituted a high-powered Bamboo Flowering and Famine Combat Scheme. One of the highlights of this programme is the early harvesting of the species of bamboos, particularly the prolific Melocanna baccifera variety.