The United States will provide an assistance of $50,000 to the Mizoram Government to tide over the food crisis caused due to large-scale crop destruction by an infestation of rats during cyclical flowering of a special species of bamboo every 48 years. Stating that over 30,000 families were facing a food crisis, including 10,000 most severely, a US Consulate release here said, the US government, following the American Embassy's declaration of disaster, would provide assistance of $50,000 for food crisis victims in affected areas of Mizoram.

Bamboo farmers and self-help groups from Karbi Anglong and other districts of Asom attended a training programme on bamboo cultivation and management held at the Deovan-based Rain Forest Research Institute (RFRI) near Sotai on Monday.

Bamboo, that is used so extensively in northeast India for various purposes like building houses, bridges, in medicines, and more, spells doom in the form of famine the moment it starts flowering. But is it true, finds out Robert L Sungte If you think all flowers are beautiful and are meant to bring smiles on everyone's face, think once again. There is this flower which does just the opposite. That flower belongs to the bamboo.

KALGACHIA

Famine caused by bamboo flowering is an indirect phenomenon that happens in 30 to 40 years depending on the species of the bamboo. Senior Congress legislator and NEHU Head of Department of Botany Dr RC Laloo told The Sentinel that bamboo flowering does not directly lead to famine but it occurs after rats have shortage of food. He said when rats feed on the high-protein seeds of bamboo, flowers start to reproduce while their population doubles leading to shortage of seeds. Therefore, the rats are left with no option but to attack the paddy fields, Dr Laloo said.

Famine relief operations are underway in Mizoram as the remote state is hit by acute food shortage after an army of rats devoured rice crops. According to the State's Food and Supplies department, this year, the food shortage has affected about 630,000 people, nearly 70 per cent of the 900,000esidents of Mizoram. However, no starvation deaths have been reported so far. The people of Mizoram fear bamboo flowering, the harbinger of famine.

23 IIT-Delhi has, for the first time, bagged projects for research and consultancy services to the tune of Rs 85 crore, 50 per cent higher than last year. The primary reason for this increase is the huge inflow of investments from foreign companies, said professor Suneet Tuli, Dean of Industrial Research and Development (IRD). The faculty has undertaken 26 research projects and consultancy services from international agencies this year, Tuli said.

The Forest department of the State has undertaken an ambitious project of bamboo plantation to strengthen the economic foundation of the State. Talking to mediapersons recently at Nagaon, Rockybul Hussain, Forest Minister told that his department would plant bamboo on 2000 hectares of land around Guwahati through the Bamboo Mission. He also disclosed that to make bamboo-based industry popular, two bamboo museums would be opened, one each at Nagaon and Guwahati.