CHENNAI: After weeks of warm weather, early blooms and a bountiful spring honey harvest, beekeepers in France have been revelling — to sell their bounties at their markets — especially now that the lockdown has been lifted. Around 7,000-km away, in India, the situation doesn’t seem as sweet for local beekeepers as it does for apiarists in other parts of the world. From beekeepers in Punjab reeling under travel restrictions to those in Jammu and Kashmir being rendered without support to sell their produce at domestic and international markets, the lockdown has stung those practising apiculture. Here, in Tamil Nadu, similar clouds of uncertainty seem to loom. The curb on travel during the key honey harvesting season (flowering season between January to June) has pressed pause on the livelihoods of honey producers, leading several to temper their expectations about good yield and profit this year.
Bleak yield
Beekeeper ‘Honey’ Manikandan who maintains over 20 bee colonies in and around Chennai rues that it has been over 30 days since he visited the bee colonies he had set up a few weeks before the lockdown. “These bee colonies or bee boxes are made by apiarists like me and usually set up in farms, near crops, and fruit-bearing plants during the flowering phase. This enables pollination and the process increases crop yield…essentially our source of food. This is one of the many reasons why bees play a very important role in our ecosystem. Before the lockdown, owing to the pollination season, I had set up a few boxes around the city. During a ‘regular’ harvest period, beekeepers visit these boxes once in 10 days to monitor the breeding, clean it and then harvest the honey. The bees have to be fed regularly — both, for their survival and a good yield. This has come to a halt now,” he says.
Eight years ago, Kundrathur resident Ponnarasu took to beekeeping after attending a one-day programme on apiculture at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore. “I have a few acres of land with neem, banana and coconut trees in Tiruvallur. So, when I learned about the benefits of bee-rearing, I decided to learn it to increase yield,” says the 56-year-old, who primarily rears Appis Mellifera (Italian bees). “I had the bee boxes set up on my farm. But due to the lockdown, I couldn’t travel from Kundrathur to Tiruvallur. When the relaxations were announced, I travelled in my motorbike to my farm to check on the boxes. But due to starvation, some bees have died. This year, both the crop and honey yield seem bleak,” he shares.
Bee dependent
Sivamani Arokiyaraj, who has been actively rearing bees in Tiruchy says that the unforeseen breakout of the novel virus and the eventual restrictions have disrupted his business. Offering around six types of honey, Sivamani says he was expecting good business this year. “I come from a family that has been rearing bees for generations. It took me a while to take this up full-time…as a youngster, I didn’t understand the importance of bees in our ecosystem or about the medicinal properties of honey. Around 2016, there was a sudden boom in beekeeping. A lot of people started talking about it, organic honey was in demand. So, I decided to tap on this — not just as a commercial venture but also to sustain organic honey harvesting in the state.
I have been able to harvest close to 40-50 kg of honey every year,” he shares, adding that last year he lost a few beehives to a viral disease, causing a major dip in his yield. Though uncertain about the yield this year too, he says he is looking forward to getting his hands inside the chambers of the bee boxes once the lockdown is lifted. “Because of the corona scare, several farm owners who had asked us to set up bee boxes aren’t letting us visit the colonies. Honey helps in purification of blood, it enhances haemoglobin levels and is good for the heart. Bees help us live and we owe every breath we take and every grain we eat to them. I just hope they are breeding without any difficulties,” he says.
Vasanthakumar of Amudha Honey Bee Farms is empathetic towards the bees. “Namaku dhagam edukra maari dhane thaeni kum (Just like us humans, bees feel thirsty too). It saddens me that all the beekeepers are struggling to tend to their colonies. But, this is a situation we wouldn’t have dreamed of. We can only hope for normalcy,” says the apiarist-cum-entrepreneur, who sells honey-based Vaseline and pain relief ointments.
An unnoticed group
While apiarists who rear bees in farms and through other methods are trying to keep the food production alive despite the sting due to the lockdown, Stephen P of Wild Honey Hunters (A branch of Ghats Honey) draws our attention to a community that has gone unnoticed amid the crisis — the honey hunter tribes. “These local tribesmen are from Coimbatore, Erode, Kodaikanal, Yercaud and Salem. Before beginning their daily harvest, they worship the bees and extract honey without destroying their habitat. A lot of their sustainable methods to extract honey can conserve the bee population. Since this is their only mode of livelihood, the lockdown has affected them the most,” says the entrepreneur, who employs these tribesmen to collect raw honey and sell them.
This, Stephen says, is an effort to save the traditional skills of these aboriginals, provide them with a source to earn their bread and butter, and give proper value for the honey they harvest. “We haven’t been able to collect the already harvested honey from them because of the limitations. If this situation prevails, they will have to wait until next year for a good yield. We as a small-scale business are trying to do our bit for their survival. But, the government needs to step in and support them,” he says. Even as we are in the fourth phase of the lockdown, apiarists continue to keep their hope afloat, check on their bees soon and look forward to a decent harvest.
Aid for apiarists
Recently, in the third tranche of the economic package, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the government will be promoting beekeeping initiatives with a `500 crore fund. This will lead to an increase in income for two lakh beekeepers and add quality honey to consumers, said the minister during the press conference. While the move was lauded by Khadi and Village Industries Commission’s (KVIC) chief Vinai Kumar Saxena for being a step towards achieving goals like growing India’s farm yield through cross-pollination and maintaining the ecological balance, in the grassroots
level, local beekeepers and tribals who rely on the profession say they have no choice but to remain hopeful and wait for help to reach.