Over one lakh families in Mizoram have been affected by the ongoing shortage of food due to the gregarious bamboo flowering which has triggered a famine like situation in the State. According to official records submitted by Deputy Commissioners of all the eight districts, rural people depending on cultivation have been facing immense hardship due to Mautam while those in urban areas were not spared either, though their sufferings are nominal. Armies of rodents ravaged annual crops like paddy, maize, chili worth Rs 41,138.57 lakh, the report said, adding perennial crops like banana, citrus fruits and others worth Rs 22,372.24 lakh were also destroyed. Destruction caused by rats to sericulture farmers as also estimated at Rs 130.54 lakh and affected 441 families, the reports said. It was decided by the Mizoram Famine Emergency Committee, formed under the chairmanship of State Home Minister Tawnluia, to rush relief to the famine affected people. National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme fund would also be used targeting the needy people by providing rice which could be repaid by them from the fund, officials said. Mautam, a local term for death of the bamboo, triggered population explosion of rats which left trails of destruction to cultivation areas in a cycle of every 48 years in this small hilly State.