CHT rat victims want long-term solution to food crisis
Sunday, 16 August 2009
Victims of the rodent crisis in three hill districts want a sustainable solution to their existing food crisis that has been persisting in the mountainous areas since 2007, a year when millions of wild rats boomed and ate all available crops in fields and stored food grains at homes, reports BSS.
Local people said they experience rat flood once every 40 to 50 years of interval when hilly bamboo flowers and die naturally after generating highly nutritious bamboo fruits, which rats consume and get extra power to breed up to eight times a year against a normal practice of twice.
"My father experienced bamboo flowering and rat flood last in 1958," said Chikonia Tripura of Bettling village of Sajek valley in Rangamati district, adding this time the rodent crisis started in Mizoram in India in 2006 and then moved to bordering Bangladesh in the following year.
Chikonia Tripura is one of the worst victims of rat boom that has forced him to migrate to Rui Lui, 12 hours walking distance from Bettling and 40 km off Baghaichari Upazila headquarters, a remote bordering area where nearly 15,000 people live.
"Betting, Shialdai, Toistoy and Ochondo Lonkor are the worst hit areas by the rat flood where rice price went up to Tk 100 per kg during the rodent crisis in September 2007," Arun Kanti Chakma, Executive Director of NGO, Alo, said at his Khagrachari office.
In Sajek, he said, 26 per cent of the local people were involved in bamboo business, but it had dwindled to only six per cent as most of bamboo varieties die after flowering. He said more than 20 per cent people lost their jobs in the area.
The World Food Programme (WFP) sources said they have come forward with 4,400 plus metric tons of emergency food support for 25,680 households in 2008 and has expanded their second phase of support for 7,750 households this year. The European Union had provided two million Euro to the WFP for extending the food assistance.
"We have been trying our best to help the rodent victims, but need additional support to overcome the deep crisis," said a WFP spokesperson, adding they have been providing both short term and long supports to the victims. He, however, acknowledged that all victims might not be covered by WFP assistance programme.
A union parishad member of Bilaichari Upazila said they have distributed Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF) and Vulnerable Group Development (VGD) cards to the rat affected people, but those support were not adequate compared to the high demand. He suggested donors to give food assistance to Government so that it can take more projects to help victims in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT).
Local people said they experience rat flood once every 40 to 50 years of interval when hilly bamboo flowers and die naturally after generating highly nutritious bamboo fruits, which rats consume and get extra power to breed up to eight times a year against a normal practice of twice.
"My father experienced bamboo flowering and rat flood last in 1958," said Chikonia Tripura of Bettling village of Sajek valley in Rangamati district, adding this time the rodent crisis started in Mizoram in India in 2006 and then moved to bordering Bangladesh in the following year.
Chikonia Tripura is one of the worst victims of rat boom that has forced him to migrate to Rui Lui, 12 hours walking distance from Bettling and 40 km off Baghaichari Upazila headquarters, a remote bordering area where nearly 15,000 people live.
"Betting, Shialdai, Toistoy and Ochondo Lonkor are the worst hit areas by the rat flood where rice price went up to Tk 100 per kg during the rodent crisis in September 2007," Arun Kanti Chakma, Executive Director of NGO, Alo, said at his Khagrachari office.
In Sajek, he said, 26 per cent of the local people were involved in bamboo business, but it had dwindled to only six per cent as most of bamboo varieties die after flowering. He said more than 20 per cent people lost their jobs in the area.
The World Food Programme (WFP) sources said they have come forward with 4,400 plus metric tons of emergency food support for 25,680 households in 2008 and has expanded their second phase of support for 7,750 households this year. The European Union had provided two million Euro to the WFP for extending the food assistance.
"We have been trying our best to help the rodent victims, but need additional support to overcome the deep crisis," said a WFP spokesperson, adding they have been providing both short term and long supports to the victims. He, however, acknowledged that all victims might not be covered by WFP assistance programme.
A union parishad member of Bilaichari Upazila said they have distributed Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF) and Vulnerable Group Development (VGD) cards to the rat affected people, but those support were not adequate compared to the high demand. He suggested donors to give food assistance to Government so that it can take more projects to help victims in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT).