The denizens of Mizoram's Champhai district, especially Puilo, Dulte and Chhawrtui villages, are facing acute famine as most of their paddy fields or jhums (shifting cultivation) have been completely destroyed by armies of rats triggered by gregarious bamboo flowering, locally called mautam. About 100 kilometres east of Aizawl, Puilo hamlet, which has 82 households, out of which 79 are totally dependent on paddy cultivation, had all its paddy fields ravaged by the swarms of rats, visiting reporters found. The villagers said that they had killed more than 6,000 rats by traditional traps called vaithang, catapult, sticks and with their bare hands from October 15 till date and showed a mound of the tails of rats to prove their point.