Tribals to hold honey bee fest to conserve their livelihood
The forest in and around the Bhimashankar sanctuary near Pune provides critical livelihood to local tribal. And harvesting of honey by local species of bees is a major source of income for local community. But due to various reasons, honey bees have been facing threat to their existence.
The Indian hive honey bee (ApisCerana) and the giant rock honey bee (ApisDorsata) is major source of income for tribal.
Therefore, the villagers of Bhorgiri and Yelavali villages near Bhimashankar sanctuary have organized Honey Bee Festival on April 1 and 2. The aim of the festival is to celebrate honey, honey bees and to spread awareness amongst kids and villagers about the bees, their importance in ecology and actions required for their conservation.
Dinakar Wanghre, one of the organizers and resident of Yelavali, said, “The forest in and around the Bhimashankar Wild Life Sanctuary (BWLS) is home to three types of bees – Apisflorea, little honey bee and red dwarf honey bee. Honey bees are important pollinators and play very crucial role in the forest and agriculture ecosystems.”
“Number of hives found here are large. But due to various reasons like degradation of jungle, approaching hives with wrong techniques and decreasing number of flowers in jungles have been causing number of hives going down.”
Manda Kathe, another villager said, “Traditionally most of the harvesters try not to destroy habitat of the bees, but recently younger generation lacking some traditional practices is leading to problems like loss of habitats. Some harvesters close cavities by placing stones or small wood logs to protect and revive the habitats.
Therefore, the villagers thought to organize event to spread awareness about conservation of honey bees. They also decided to invite tourists along with other local villagers.
She added, “We have invited villagers from all nearby villages and also tourists. We will be taking them to parts of jungles where honey harvesting is done. They will be explained ways to conserve hives and honey. They will also be explained about how the number of honey bees is going down due to unskilled harvesting by new generation. They will be shown how to harvest honey by experts. Number of stalls will avail different types of honey and will explain their benefits to the human bodies.”
Pradip Chavan, a social worker, who is helping out villagers, said, “Traditional honey harvesting practices are not entirely sustainable, but it has some values like habitat conservation and revival. For the benefit of both Apiscerana and local honey harvesters, we have initiated a conservation and livelihood progamme amongst the villagers in and around the Bhimashankar wild life sanctuary. The project is aimed towards the bio-diversity conservation and strengthening livelihoods.”