INDIA: The Indian army, used to fighting insurgencies in India's turbulent northeastern states, is now fighting another enemy - rats.
Soldiers are combating millions of rats that have destroyed crops and consumed vast quantities of grain in Mizoram province bordering Bangladesh and Burma, in the states of Tripura, Manipur and Meghalaya, and in parts of Assam. The explosion in rat numbers has generated fears of food shortages and disease in the thickly forested and under-developed region.
Army officials said soldiers were not only hunting rats, but were also educating villagers on pest and rodent control. They have set up community farms to grow aromatic spices, such as ginger and turmeric, which keep the rodents away, according to an army official involved in the "rat war" in Manipur's hugely infested Churachandpur district.
"The rats are a huge problem and if not dealt with effectively will trigger an economic crisis," Tonsing Vunglallian, a professor at Churachandpur college, said.
The increase in the rat population is attributed to the flowering of a particular variety of bamboo across the northeastern provinces that happens once every five decades or so. It last bloomed in 1958 in Mizoram. The consequent famine claimed almost 15,000 lives, triggering a guerrilla war between the native Mizo people and the government which lasted almost two decades.
The Mizo National Famine Front that emerged from the ecological disaster became the insurgent Mizo National Front, which eventually signed a peace agreement with the federal authorities in 1986.
According to bamboo expert Dr MP Ranjan, the flowers produce protein-rich seeds favoured by rats, causing an explosion in their population. After the seeds are exhausted, millions of hungry rats fan out attacking scarce grain supplies.
"The resultant famine [ in 1958] was quite disastrous, and that is what is being expected this time round," Dr Ranjan said.
"The situation is serious in many parts of Mizoram and the Churachandpur district of Manipur," said James Lalsiamliana, plant protection official of Mizoram's agriculture department.
The British colonial administration first noticed the phenomenon of bamboo flowering in the northeast and its devastating impact on ecology. It recorded the first famine in 1862, and the second 19 years later, in which about 15,000 Mizos died. The 1911-12 famine was also caused by the phenomenon, with similarly tragic results.
Local administrations are planning on harvesting the deadly bamboo before it flowers and to use it locally to build houses and furniture, one of the principal exports of the poverty-ridden and underdeveloped area.
Farmers are being provided with rat traps and poison, while radio stations are broadcasting programmes on how to deal with the rodent menace. Mass rat poisoning campaigns are also being undertaken in villages by the army and local civic groups.
But the Rain Forest Research Institute in Assam warned that of 26 million tons of bamboo in the region, only about 10 million tons lie in accessible areas, rendering the problem of dealing with the virulent strain somewhat difficult.