Taiwan tribe despairs over drought

In the hills: The T’fuya village in Alishan Township where the Tsou tribe resides in Chiayi County. — AFP

Chiayi County: Hacking at a bamboo plant with a machete, Avayi Vayayana peels back the shoot’s stiff bark as he scans southern Taiwan’s mountains, anxious for more of the money-making crop his Indigenous tribe increasingly struggles to find.

Generations of the Tsou tribe have lived off Alishan township’s bamboo forests, which Vayayana says were planted by his forefathers and typically harvested in April and May.