Bamboo, Rats and Famine

Flowering of a ubiquitous bamboo, Melocanna baccifera, in the Indian state of Mizoram occurs in roughly fifty year cycles. This mass flowering event results in the production of innumerable bamboo seeds and, subsequently, a boom in the population of rats. The mass population of rats eat more than the bamboo seeds, however — food crops are devastated causing famine and political unrest.

Bracing for a famine caused by rats via the BBC (April 2007)

Bamboo puts India on famine alert via the BBC (October, 2004)

Indian farmers braced for rat plague via the Telegraph (May, 2007)

Bamboo in Mizoram via the Bamboo Development Agency

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 9:47 AM on May 8, 2007

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