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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Tauseef Ahmad and Sajid Raina in Mamit district, Mizoram

A swarm of stink bugs and a river of rats: why India’s flowering bamboo causes a crisis for humans

India Mizoram
A black rat can gnaw through the large seed of the Melocanna bamboo.
A black rat can gnaw through the large seed of the Melocanna bamboo. Photograph: PBS/Nova

In the hills of Mizoram state in north-east India, the first thing that farmers notice are the swarms of stink bugs, known locally as thangnang. It can mean only one thing: the rats are coming. And with them, famine.

As dawn breaks in Mamit district, Maunsanga, a 62-year-old farmer, walks across his plot, stopping where his rice crop once stood. He bends down to examine a broken stalk.

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