Outbreak of Udonga Montana, a stinky species of Pentatomid bug, locally known as ‘Thangnang’ in Mizoram has been reported from Mizoram-Tripura-Bangladesh border Mamit town and surrounding villages, reports from Mamit said on Wednesday. Swarms of the bugs also known as Cinnamonrested on tree branches without causing damages to the trees. Villagers collected the bugs and extracted stinky oil from them and sold at Rs 50 a cup as the oil of the bugs have been the source of highly required edible oil for the tribal population in the past and even today, though much lower in demand in the present style of living.
Earlier, Mizos, mainly of an agrarian society believed that outbreak of ‘Thangnang’ is an omen or harbinger of bad things to come, especially famine. Local agriculture scientists also echo the same belief saying that outbreak of the stinky bugs has relation with the impending ‘Thing tam’ or gregarious flowering of ‘Rawthing’ a species of bamboo called ‘Bambusatulda’ which happens in an interval of 48-year cycle.
Gregarious flowering of ‘Bambusatulda’ had triggered multiplication of rodents in the past which resulted in mass destruction of paddy fields as well as vegetables by the swarm of rats in the past. The last ‘Thing tam’ or famine triggered by death of Bambusatulda (rawthing) en masse and devastation of cultivation areas by rodents occurred in 1977 and is most likely to recur in 2025, local scientists predicted.
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