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Melocanna baccifera
Melocanna baccifera, estimated to represent over a sixth of the country’s growing stock of bamboo, is known to flower gregariously at intervals of 44 - 48 years. After flowering, a fleshy large fruit is formed; the fruit can weigh upto 150 grammes.
The flowering of Melocanna baccifera (known in most parts of North East India as 'muli' bamboo) is an event of great significance. Large tracts of land are affected, as bamboo forests burst into bloom and then die.
Significant increases in rodent populations have been reported in the past, a response to the increase in food supply as a result of seed setting.
Seeds will however germinate, or be washed away, or crushed into the ground. As a result, the food supply will decrease, causing rodents to search for alternative supply, often to crops and granaries. In the past, this has been a causal element in reduction of food supply for the people, and even in civil unrest.
Melocanna baccifera is a thin-walled, small diameter and non-clump forming bamboo.
It is located in large concentrations in Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and in southern Assam. It also grows in Nagaland and Meghalaya.
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It is expected that the major phase of gregarious flowering will be in the period .
The Government is acutely aware of the dimensions of the problem, and is taking up a series of preventive and ameliorative measures, including encouraging pre-flowering extraction and utilisation, induction of cohorts of alternative species, and taking up assisted regeneration.

Under a notification issued by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry (Notification No. 37 (RE-2004)/ dated 26 March 2004), export of Muli bamboo is permitted till 31 March 2007, subject to the observance of Transit Rules of the concerned State Forest Departments under the Indian Forest Act.

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