According to official sources here today, flowering of taffo (a sub-Himalayan species of dwarf bamboo) is spreading thick and fast across the region in a north to south direction.
The farmers are scared of imminent rat menace in their areas following bamboo flowering this year which likely to affect their harvest.
Last year the northern villages like Tassar Sollung, Kesse Bagang and Jayang Bagang were the first to be hit by rodent menace, before it spread in neighbouring villages of Wada Bagang, Sangchu, Tamak Sollung and Laching Bagang in the district.
Standing crops (paddy, corns and millets) in these villages were swept clean by huge armies of wild mice which the villagers link to the flowering of bamboos.
Now bamboo flowering has appeared in the villages of Yangfo, Keyang, Jatam, Hara Yangfo, Tagampu, Tarawa Yangfo, Rebe of Chayang Tajo circle and Lotto Yangfo, Dara and Byale of Sawa circle, the sources said.
“Villagers who come to see me bring tales of taffo flowering and premonitions of a famine-like situation,” Chayang Tajo SDO in-charge, Dahey Sangno, said.
In a report to East Kameng deputy commissioner in Seppa, Sangno urged that the situation “may be treated as an advance warning” and that the onus of preparedness lies with the higher authorities in the government.
In the meantime, he has requested the administration to direct the agriculture and forest departments to carry out further assessments.