BAMBOO FLOWERING PROMPTS FOOD CRISIS IN CHITTAGONG

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DHAKA 000110 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: AID BG PGOV PHUM PREL SUBJECT: BAMBOO FLOWERING PROMPTS FOOD CRISIS IN CHITTAGONG HILL TRACTS ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY. An infestation of rats is prompting a food crisis in communities along the Indian border in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in southeastern Bangladesh. The cause of the crisis is the flowering of a species of bamboo that is resulting in an explosion in the rat population. Post is working with the Bangladesh government (GOB) to provide funding to the UN Development Program (UNDP) to address the crisis. END SUMMARY. ONCE EVERY 50 YEARS... ====================== ¶2. (U) The area of the Chittagong Hill Tracts abutting the Indian border is covered with the species of bamboo with the scientific name melacanna baccifera. This bamboo, which villagers in the Hill Tracts and the neighboring Indian state of Mizoram rely on for sustenance, flowers once every 40 to 50 years and then dies off. This sets off a series of events: after eating the flowers, rats multiply considerably more than normal, creating an infestation that eats all crops and vegetables; the bamboo dies after flowering, depriving the local population of a plant they rely on for a variety of needs; and the final result is generally a severe food crisis. International media recently reported that when the bamboo flowering last occurred in 1959, it took the lives of thousands of residents of India and the Hill Tracts and prompted insurgencies in both countries. ¶3. (U) During a four-day visit to the Chittagong Hill Tracts in early January, POLOFF and AID officers were informed by local officials in Rangamati of an emerging food crisis in the remote eastern parts of Rangamati and Bandarban districts. Rats have begun eating up all the crops in border areas, destroying the rice harvest, and forcing local villagers to subsist on roots and edible leaves. Villagers, mostly subsistence farmers who usually grow their own rice, have been forced to buy outside rice at 50 taka per kilogram -- an exorbitant sum well beyond the means of most Hill Tract residents. (NOTE: Rice in comparatively wealthier Dhaka currently sells for approximately 30 taka per kilogram, and that is considered very expensive. END NOTE.) ¶4. (U) On a site visit to the indigenous Chakma village of Beganachari near the Indian border on January 8, local leaders showed us how their rice crop and other vegetable gardens along the riverbank had been devastated by rats. Leaders said they tried poisoning the rats and scaring them away, but there were too many to have any effect. BETWEEN 20,000 AND 50,000 AFFECTED ================================== ¶5. (U) Local officials believe between 20,000 and 50,000 people could be affected by the severe food shortage. The majority of those affected belong to indigenous tribes that have had a strained relationship with the Bangladesh authorities for decades. Several local officials we spoke to expressed concern that the GOB was ignoring the problem. Researchers we spoke to said they had been warning the GOB for the past two years of an impending food crisis, but authorities had not responded. COMMENT: EMBASSY WORKING WITH GOB TO PROVIDE RELIEF ============================================= ====== ¶6. (SBU) On January 10, Embassy staff met with representatives of the GOB's Economic Relations Division (ERD) to discuss this growing food crisis. Post proposed the possibility of issuing a localized disaster declaration, which would provide for an initial $50,000 in USAID Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) emergency assistance funds to be programmed through the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to provide food aid to affected areas. ERD agreed, and USAID Bangladesh is preparing the request. We are also consulting with the GOB's Foreign Research Institute about how we can work with affected villages to replant their crops quickly and recover from the dying-off of the bamboo which sustains them. The food situation in the Chittagong DHAKA 00000110 002 OF 002 Hill Tracts is exacerbated by the pressures on food supply throughout Bangladesh caused by high world food prices and by the devastation of last year,s floods and Cyclone Sidr. Rollins