blossoms There is a type of bamboo village. As I recorded them with a
in the north-eastern state of microphone looking a bit like a
Mizoram which flowers only every satellite dish, which homes in on
48 years and, as Neil McCarthy faraway sounds, the thick cloud
reports, the blossoms spell crept up from below, infused with
disaster for the local people. silver moonlight, enveloping me
There is a nocturnal sound Mizoram and the hillside. Suddenly hungry
farmers dread. Some describe a rats sounded very close indeed,
wind, some a powerful engine very loud in my headphones. Was
moving through the insect-buzzing that a long tail which just slid
night. Others speak of a cutting, past my foot? I had strayed from
tearing sound made by armies of the hut, but dashed back as
small scythes. When day breaks quickly as I could, suppressing a
their eyes take in the sight: large shudder. Difficult enemy As
entire fields of crops, that took dawn breaks J Rokuma meets an
months of hard work to prepare assembly of Ratu farmers. They
after slashing and burning the want rat poison. It is fairly
jungle, all laid waste. 'Swallowed ineffective and dangerous, but
up' It is a sound they were told they are desperate. It is so much
about by their grandparents and easier fighting a human enemy
which returns, like clockwork, Village leader The village leader,
every 48 years. It is the sound of a retired soldier still wearing
Rattus Rattus, the black rat, that his beret, talks about the
feasts and swarms, bringing ruin difficulty of waging war on the
and revolution to this faraway unpredictable rats. It is so much
corner of India. Amid the lush easier fighting a human enemy, he
vegetation clinging to the tells me. J. Rokuma chips in that
uncountable hills of Mizoram - they are on the warpath now.
land of the hill people, the Mizos Whether 'they' meant the rats, or
- are clumps of brown poles, the humans, I wasn't sure. The
decaying and being swallowed up by military connection is
the hungry jungle. They are significant. During the last
actually a species of bamboo which bamboo flowering, in 1959, rats
fruits, flowers and dies every also swarmed, but the Indian
half-century. It happens to be the central government ignored all
favourite food of the rat and when warnings of plague and famine,
its flowers rain down on the dismissing the Mizos as a
forest floor, the rat population superstitious lot. People's
explodes. Instead of the usual one suffering fuelled a nationalist
in a litter of 12 pups surviving, insurgency and 20 years of
in this time of plenty all 12 will guerrilla warfare until Mizoram
survive and will all be breeding achieved statehood. Those same
themselves within a few months. Up jungle warriors are now in top
in the hills, along endless twists political office in Mizoram,
and turns, with road signs asking mindful of the unfolding famine
drivers to "be gentle with my and its far-reaching consequences.
curves" I was taken to the Biblical connection But Pu Rem, a
conveniently named village of farmer out on the Ratu hillside,
Ratu, sadly blighted by the rats. is hungry and weary. He has
J Rokuma, a broad-smiled already lost one of his two fields
agricultural officer, was dashing to the rats and they have started
out there with rat poison for attacking his other one. He has
farmers under siege. Having been losing sleep, worrying about
finished the bamboo flower, the whether the rats will come each
rats have moved onto the crops. We night. His faith is not placed in
trekked across moonlit hillsides the government, but in God. For
and could make out strange lines some in this Christian state the
in the fields where the rice had biblical aspects of the plague and
stood tall but was now gone, the famine come to mind. Others see it
rats working as if in military as a magical event: tens of
formation. Alive with sazu Lying thousands of rats suddenly
in a bamboo hut on my first night appearing, ransacking and
I was woken by the sound. For me disappearing at night, as if they
it was like giant rain drops. I had flown in, unseen. Either way,
clambered out at about four in the most Mizo villagers are resigned
morning to see tall stems of rice to the fact that this is a
quiver in the moonlight and then destructive natural phenomenon
drop to the ground, followed by they will just have to ride out.
furious munching and squealing. 48 years from now, those old
The rats - or sazu as they call enough will remind the next
them here - were passing through generation that the sudden
the field. Beyond it, serpents of mysterious flowering of the bamboo
silver cloud slide through the heralds the return of Mizoram's
valley below and the fields, most unwelcome visitor: Sazu, the
carefully carved out of the rat. And nothing is likely to get
jungle, lie still on the in its way. From Our Own
hillsides. It is hard not to be Correspondent was broadcast on
swept away with the notion of an Saturday, 25 October, 2008 at 1130
agrarian paradise. But those BST on BBC Radio 4. Please check
sleeping fields are alive with the programme schedules for World
unseen rats and famine is Service transmission times.