Dying voices in the garden

“In the past 70 years of my personal experience, I have never seen such a sharp decline in bee colonies. Thanks to an acute shortage of food, these little beings are struggling to survive. The nesting tree near my home shelters around 75 rock bee colonies every year but the numbers have been reduced to 10 in the last decade,” rues Subba Gowda, 95, also called jenu marana kodla Subba(Subba from the valley of honey).

Researchers point out some reasons for the decline in these global pollinators – food shortage, climate changes, use of chemical pesticides, declining forest covers, decreasing nesting habitats, unscientific harvesting of the honey, loss of biodiversity, invasion of exotic weeds and many more. The Thai sacbrood viral disease has also left some damaging imprints on honeybees. 

Various studies have demonstrated that due to pollination services by honey bees, yield of agriculture and horticulture crops increase up to 30 per cent. Though it is difficult to measure the volume of bee pollination, scientists have estimated that annual services due to pollination by the bees are worth 6000 billion rupees globally.

One of the major facts that people don’t know is that honeybees are susceptible to almost all commercial pesticides. On exposure to sub-lethal doses of pesticides, bees suffer disruption in their dance behaviour and thereby face breakdown of accurate communication of information about food resources. Poisoned queens are unable to maintain control over the hive and are often superseded. What more, honey production also gets affected to a major extent. Loss of these pollinators would result in extinction of many keystone species of plants. This in turn, has a cascading effect on the ecosystem.

Detrimental practices

When unscientific methods of honey hunting are practised, there is a decline in the numbers. Honey hunting of Indian rock bee (Apis dorsata) is practised throughout its distribution range in south and southeast Asia. A large number of people in the State depend on honey hunting for their livelihood. Different techniques adopted to climb the huge nesting trees for honey harvesting, harvesting skills, locating the bee hives itself makes for a strong cultural and traditional link for those living near the forests. According to a study by Life Trust based in Sirsi, more than 80 per cent of honey comes from the forests in the central Western Ghats. There are instances, where a single household earned more than one and a half lakh rupees annually, through the sale of honey and bee wax.

For hunter-gatherers, honey hunting is a way of quickly obtaining high carbohydrate (honey) and high protein (pollen and bee larvae) foods with little financial inputs. But sadly, extension services throughout our country often ignore honey hunters while encouraging beekeepers. There’s a general belief that honey hunters are amongst the poorest workers, found only in remote rural regions. This naccessibility has proved costly for them as they get no assistance from the world outside.

But such a situation can be changed to gather benefits for both the parties. For one, the hunters can be made aware of producing better quantity of honey by reducing contamination during and after the harvest. Further, their products can also be better marketed.

At the same time, efforts should be made to encourage honey hunters to harvest honey without destroying the bee colony. They should be trained to harvest only the comb containing honey and leave the comb-containing brood intact.

However, this is easier said than done. But there are some regions that have eco-sensitive traditions ensuring the sustenance of bee populations. But owing to the scale of the problem, we need rapid action across an entire region instead of small pockets. Only then can bee sustenance see true success.

Repair strategies

Considering the dearth of study and proper governance mechanisms in place, chairman of Western Ghats Task Force, Ananth Ashisar, initiated activities for conservation and development of wild bees. It included study on ecology of esting trees, listing of flora for which bees visit for pollen and nectar, making a comprehensive listing of honey hunters and providing them training and necessary equipment.

Promoting effective management of bee colonies and their habitat on a participatory basis, involving local village forest committees and forest department was also one of the tasks. Mapping of host trees having honey bee colonies, establishing Jenu vana (honey forest) by planting flowering plants that support honey with pollen and nectar and nesting trees, estricting harvesting of honey from certain bee colonies are some other initiatives undertaken by the task force. “Aiming for the better management of wild honeybees, we have initiated such programmes in more than ten forest ranges in the Western Ghats,” says Ananth.

Albert Einstein clearly stated the seriousness of the issue when he said, “If the bee disappeared from the surface of the globe, then man will only have four years of life left.” It’s high time we paid ttention to these little creatures and
ensured their buzz doesn’t die.