As they gorge on the small, green fruits, their population is soaring. In areas where they have finished off the fruits, the rats have turned their attention to farmers' crops.

The bamboo flowering will reach its peak in 2007, but already it is causing havoc. Experts say that the rich protein content of the bamboo fruits increases the rats' reproductive power.

"Our drive to kill rats covers 150 villages across the state and, so far, villagers have killed around 200,000 rodents using poison and locally made traps," James Lalsiamliana, a senior agriculture officer, told Reuters from the capital, Aizawl.

The area around Aizawl and two other districts of the state -- 30 percent of whose area is covered by bamboo forests -- are the worst hit so far by the hungry rats.

"Killing of rats will continue until middle of December till the harvesting is over," Lalsiamliana said over the phone.

The last time the bamboo flowered was in 1959 -- and the armies of rats that came in its wake then decimated paddy fields across the region, leading to severe food shortages.

The lack of food sparked a revolt against Indian rule in the remote state bordering Myanmar and Bangladesh that lasted until 1986 in which around 3,000 people were killed.

Local people call the famine which follows bamboo flowering "mautum" which means "bamboo death" in the local language, In 1959, New Delhi brushed off local warnings of a famine as tribal superstition.

"I hope this time the government is well-prepared to face possible food shortages as I remember last time, the government remained a silent spectator to people's suffering," Laldinkmawia Sailo, a retired Mizo civil servant, said from Aizawl.