Hordes of rats swept through the forests of Mizoram, feasting on the fruits of wild bamboo, which flowers every 48 years.
Experts say that the rich protein content of the bamboo fruits increases the rats' reproductive power.
The rats moved onto farmers' crops after finishing off the fruits.
The last time the bamboo flowered was in 1959 and the armies of rats that came in its wake decimated paddy fields across the region, leading to severe food shortages.
In 2007, the government hoped to be better prepared. But the rats could not be stopped because of bad planning and alternative rice supply plans went wrong, aid agencies said.
They said a majority of villagers were now surviving on wild roots, yam and sweet potatoes with either no supply or no money to buy to their staple food, rice.
'Conditions of widespread food shortage and hunger prevail in all eight districts of Mizoram,' said a report by international aid agency ActionAid.
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.
