BENGALURU: They no longer have to worry about ‘to bee or not to bee’! For, a former banker with extensive knowledge of apiculture is saving the lives of thousands of bees by rehabilitating honeycombs in the city and spreading awareness about these flying insects. C H Shankar Hariharan (45), an insurance banker who quit his job two years ago, has been practising apiculture, or beekeeping, for over 30 years. He spreads awareness on co-existing with bees, trains people in beekeeping, supplies them bees and the required equipment and rehabilitates beehives which are built at inconvenient locations.
His interest began when he was 13. “My grandfather had imported a few beehive boxes from the UK. After he passed away, the boxes were to be used as firewood. I opted to keep a couple of them and that is how my interest in beekeeping began,” he says.
Many beehives in the city exist within electrical boxes and telephone exchanges and are usually destroyed on being discovered. To save them, Hariharan has visited several sub-divisions of Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Ltd (Bescom) and telephone exchanges and instructed the staff there to contact him in case they found beehives.
Hariharan has set up a small scale industry at Mahadevapura, under the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), a government body, to manufacture equipment for beekeeping, including boxes, honey extractors and bee smokers. He trains people who want to take up beekeeping and supplies them with boxes and bees. He has set up apiaries at a few places, including at a school in Hosur, and maintains the hives there.
Honeybees too, like other urban wildlife, often come in conflict with humans and Hariharan tries his best in educating people against harming bees. He says beehives usually found on high-rises are built by Giant Honey Bees (Apis Dorsata), which cannot be domesticated. “Their natural habitat is anthills and hollows of tree trunks, but in these concrete jungles, they make their homes in shoe racks, electrical boxes, telephone exchanges, etc. Such bees are killed and the hives destroyed by humans who reside nearby as they feel threatened.
Hariharan explains that bees have visibility up to dusk — about 6.30 pm. They have an internal tracker, like a GPS one, which helps them return to their hives. But as they cannot see, they get attracted to lights in balconies of buildings near the hives and go there. “So when people see them, they think they are under threat and end up killing the bees. But they are, in fact, killing their own nature by doing this. Wherever beehives exist, it indicates that the flora and fauna of the area is in good condition,” he says.
“Bees will only attack when they feel threatened, and humans need to learn to co-exist with them. But humans are a race who feel a need to finish every other species and ensure that they alone exist,” he adds.
Shanthi Chandola, a resident of Nallurhalli and a naturalist, is among those who is learning beekeeping from Hariharan. She had placed a box for birds to nest at her farm. This year, when no birds nested in the box, she checked it and found a beehive inside it. Not wanting to hurt the bees, she contacted Hariharan, who transferred the colony into a bee box last week.
“We have kept that box at home and we are learning from Hariharan to extract honey from the hive without harming the bees. In the past few years, we noticed that a lot of bees were dying in our garden. It is also a recognised problem world over. It would be really nice if more people try to help bees. Every year, citizens who find beehives near their residences, post queries on what they can do about it, which is why I put up a post about him on social media,” she says.
IMMUNE TO STINGS
By working with bees for so long, Hariharan has developed immunity to their stings. “The bitten area doesn’t swell now, unlike during my childhood when I would often attend school with a swollen face,” he quips. He knows the techniques to prevent stings. “You should not make any swift moves near beehives, rather, your movements have to be slow and rhythmic. In addition, any beekeeper needs to learn how to remove stings.”
Commonly Found Bees In B’luru
Indian honey bee (Apis Cerana Indica): They are non-aggressive and do not exhibit swarming behaviour, which makes them ideal for beekeeping. Their stings are not too venomous for humans.
Giant honey bee (Apis Dorsata):
Their natural habitat is within anthills and hollows of tree trunks, and in urban habitats they are found on high-rise apartments, shoe racks, electrical boxes, etc. They cannot be domesticated, and their stings are more venomous than those of ‘Indica’ bees. They will only attack when provoked or threatened.