A famine like situation has gripped Mizoram with over half a million people affected following the flowering of bamboo and subsequent increase in rodent population. "Even though the State is reeling under the grip of famine, there is no starvation death,' said R. Lalthangliana, the Forest and Environment Minister. This natural phenomenon occurs after 48 to 50 years and leads to the destruction of crops by rodents and other insects attracted by the bamboo flowers. Rodents multiply rapidly after eating the protein-rich seeds that appear soon after bamboo flowering. "The Government is distributing paddy seeds free of cost to farmers across the state as a majority of the cultivators have lost all their crops due to gregarious bamboo flowering,' Lalthangliana told IANS. The farmers in the landlocked state lost around 80 percent of their harvest as armies of rodents ravaged paddy fields and destroyed most of the harvest, including horticultural crops, in the past one year. The seven states of the North-east region received about Rs 380 million from the central government to tackle the problems after gregarious flowering on