From the cities to the wild, the world of bees and human-nature interface
As a child, my dreaded moment walking back home from school was passing under the giant water tower that loomed over the emerging residential buildings around. Why? Simply because that structure was home to some big and menacing honeybee colonies. No effort was spared to get rid of them for the safety of the human residents of the colony.
Honey collectors were invited but were only able to destroy a few hives. Come to think of it, they never did wish to get rid of all honeybees – honey was their livelihood. Whenever we saw the honey collectors in their loin-dhoti, jute ropes, leafbaskets, and smouldering torches, we would run home from the fear of the bees and hail the honey collectors for their bravery from our balconies. For the city kid, the bees did not belong to the urban environment.
Decades later, a thousand kilometres from the water tank, I accompanied honey collectors deep into the forest to study their harvesting techniques. They carried battery lights, mountaineering ropes, and bee suits. Rappelling up the trees, protected by the bee suit, the collectors set to task — they extracted the honey chamber leaving the hive intact. A few days before the extraction, they had inspected the hives to select those that looked full or healthy – full of bees and large enough in size – ensuring that honey extraction does not irreparably damage the colonies. This sustainable harvest ensured that the bees were not destroyed, and the honey collectors retained their livelihood. For the biologist, the bees belonged to the wilderness.
In between these two lie our gardens, agricultural fields, and fruit orchards. Here both humans and bees meet more intimately. Here, our relationship with bees goes beyond extraction, it is give-and-take — nature’s way. In well-wooded gardens, now a relic in most metropolises, bees pollinate ornamental flowers amid inhospitable surroundings. In backyard gardens, it is bees that pollinate flowers. Bees such as the blue-banded bee, leaf-cutter bee, and carpenter bees pollinate eggplant, tomato, as well as chilly by what is called “buzz pollination”. The wingbeats of a bee help the flowers set pollen loose which the bees gather.
In the countryside, the winter mustard fields are abuzz in the mornings – farmers attest to the fact that bees increase their mustard yields. While most of our cereal crops are wind-pollinated, our vegetables, pulses, and legumes are insect-pollinated. It is not farfetched to say that we owe our diverse palate to bees. There are over 650 species of bees, most lead a solitary life and but are equally important pollinators.
It has been nearly 25 years between that city kid and the biologist. The “urban” bees are now gone, washed away by insecticidal sprays as buildings around rose higher than the water tower. The collectors have probably changed their vocation to suit city needs. The “wild” bees, paradoxically, have found saviours in humans — who have shifted from an aggressive method of extracting honey using fire and removing the entire hive to only leaving a a small hole in the hive, which a healthy bee colony restores within a week.
In this world of rapid urbanisation compounded by intensive farming and habitat degradation, bees are silent victims. Their vanishing underlines a bigger problem that is popularly termed “insect apocalypse”. A study of the effects of pollution from Bengaluru shows reduced lifespan and vitality among bees that live in city centres. Furthermore, rampant pesticide use has resulted in alarming drops in bee populations, leading to what is termed as “colony collapse disorder” — a problem now exacerbated by parasitic infestations, climate crisis, and a plethora of man-induced changes.
Our world is incomplete without insects. Just as tigers, elephants, and hornbills represent unique ecosystems, honeybees represent entire communities of other pollinator insects. They represent whole ecosystems down to that fruit on our table, and that makes May 20, World Bee Day, much more than about bees – it is about belonging together with nature.
Aniruddha Dhamorikar is coordinator, Species Conservation, Central India Landscape, WWF India The views expressed are personal