Movement for conserving bees in the Western Ghats

Dear Supporters,

We hope you are doing great in the pandemic. As the pandemic rules and regulations started to minimizing, we started our work in full power. Just like worker bees, our researchers started to forage in our field site to find new and healthy foraging sites for pollinators. The way honey bees search for healthy and nectaring flowers, we started our search to find new, healthy, and organic cashew and mango orchards from our study site.

In this era of development and dirty competition, the majority of farmers have started to use chemical fertilizers in their farms to get more and more yield. Also, they use genetically modified, hybrid cashew and mango verity in their farms. The situation is becoming more drastic as they are gradually increasing their farms/orchards by clearing surrounding forests areas. All these activities are causing a serious threat to the regional pollinator species. On the other hand, we have succeeded to discover new farms with a native variety of cashew trees. The owner of these lands/farms still believes in the “The Old Is Gold” philosophy. 

During our expedition we came across 3 local people from our study site. All these 3 people own around 17 acres of farmland having around 500+ native cashew verity plants. Without wasting any time, we have conducted biodiversity and social surveys in and around these farmlands. The results were fascinating. From these field visits, we managed to record around 25 species of birds, around 20 species of insects (including Honey bees and Stingless bees) from the orchards as well as from the surrounding forest area. Also, we managed to record 32 species of different plants, 23 Herb species and 10 shrub species, and 18 climber species from the surrounding forest of these cashew orchards. This diversity is nothing but an indicator that shows the importance and health of these cashew orchards and their surrounding forest area.

Further, using AERF’s secondary data & available literature we tried to prepare a seasonal flowering plant list from this region. This list is useful for our future interventions in this area. The detailed list is attached with this report.

At AERF, we always try to come up with different ideas and initiatives for the sustainable development and growth of local communities by conserving regional biodiversity. One such initiative is the “Fair for Life” (FFL) certification program. This certification focuses upon the sustainable collection of produce from Private Orchards/Farmlands/Plantations. Also, it encourages providing many social and financial benefits to all the stakeholders of the projects. AERF- under its for-profit wing Nature Connect India Pvt. Ltd. has identified 4 different cashew orchards and other private forest patches to be brought under the FFL certification - for the collection of resources from these areas. 

While conducting biodiversity surveys of these sites the idea of starting honey bee conservation studies cropped up in the mind of the team members. During the meetings with these private landowners, we pitched this idea, to which they readily agreed. Now, the main activities that will be conducted under this new initiative are :

1) Conduct surveys to identify patches where foraging grounds for bees could be created.

2) Planting a mixed variety of native and seasonal flower species to attract the bees throughout the year. Monsoon is the perfect time to plant these species. Now that the rains are not strong enough, the planted flower species will not get washed away.

3) Providing training to the owners to maintain these bee foraging grounds.

Once the rains stop and the flowers start to bloom, the bees will get attracted to these foraging grounds. This will serve two purposes:

1) These foraging grounds are located in the cashew and mango orchards. Come December, the flowering on these trees will begin to show. The bees that are attracted to the foraging grounds will also help in pollination on the cashew/mango trees.

2) We plan to run a pilot program by training these orchard owners on Bee Keeping. We will train them to capture the queen bee, how to set up the bee boxes, and how to extract the honey once the box is ready. Further, we will sign agreements with our Bee Champions to purchase the honey from them at a fair price, at the same time bringing the honey supply chain under FFL Certification.

We at AERF, are always thinking about sustainable conservation and community empowerment. Many of you all have supported us in the past and that has helped us to continue this fight against time and nature. We look forward to more support from all you nature enthusiasts who believe in us! 

• Seasonal flowering species (XLSX)

Dear Supporter,

We hope you are safe and doing well in this pandemic. As you all heard from the news and social media platforms, India is currently fighting against the COVID-19 second wave. India recorded the first case of COVID-19 in March 2020. The cases were increasing till September 2020. After September the number of cases went down and the first wave of COVID-19 officially began to decline.

However, from February 2021 onward, cases began to rise exponentially. India was hit by the second wave of COVID-19. The effect of this second wave was quite devastating. In just one month India recorded as many cases as in 6 months of 2020 and the cases are still rising day by day. The situation became more serious for us when our 2 team members and myself affected by this virus.

Due to adverse effects caused by this virus, we were unable to carry out our planned activities related to this project on Saving Bees. In addition to this, cyclone “Tauktae” made things worse for us. Due to this cyclone, we faced a complete power cut for 2 days. The past 2 months were quite challenging for all of us anyway. We are trying our best to tackle this situation and utilize our time in effective ways.

On a positive note, we did not let this quarter go completely unproductive. Our field team conducted several field surveys to explore new field sites (Cashew and Mango orchards). The basic idea behind this was to find farmers from this region who are practicing organic farming techniques in their farms and to make them conversant with the role of pollinators in the production of these economically important horticulture crops. Our team managed to find 3 such cashew orchards and these orchards will be further monitored for abundance and diversity of pollinator insects by our team.

While conducting surveys in these cashew orchards, our team found out that most of the flowers of cashew were visited by a smaller relative of honey bees i.e. Stingless bees. Through further research, we got to know that the Stingless bee (Tetragonula iridipennis), is a species of bee belonging to the family Apidae. This species of stingless bee is found in India, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia. It has been proven by many researchers that this particular bee species are acting as major pollinators in cashew and mango orchards. Not only this but it is also a less known fact that stingless bees have also been reared in tree logs, wooden boxes, and clay pots for harvesting small quantities of highly prized medicinal honey. Most research on stingless bees from the Indian subcontinent has been focused on their role as crop and native flora pollinators but the actual correlation of these bees with cashew and mango flowers is still unknown.

We consider this knowledge gap as a great opportunity to explore and understand the role of these tiny bees in agro-production. Thus we have started field research on this smaller and lesser-known taxa. In addition, our team has also observed an amazing symbiotic relation of Oecophylla smaragdina (a species of Ant) and cashew tree. Our team observed that this species of ants were hunting and feeding on some harmful insects like mites, woodlouse, bugs, and beetles.

The Oecophylla smaragdina, is commonly known as the Weaver ant. These aggressive arboreal ants use larval silk to weave together leaves to form their nesting cavities. A mature colony of Oecophylla smaragdina can entirely dominate a tree (sometimes several) with nests distributed throughout their heavily defended arboreal territory. This species of ant have been documented as an effective biocontrol agent of a range of cashew and mango insect pests not only in Asia but also in Africa and Papua New Guinea. Researchers have found out that weaver ants help to control the population of harmful insects like Coconut bugs, Mosquito bugs, Thrips, and Coreid bugs, mites, and woodlouse. These insects are not only harmful to cashew and mango trees but also are harmful to the honey bee population.

After understanding the interdependence of ants and bees, we have started to prepare a detailed management plan to use Oecophylla smaragdina as a natural bio controller in the selected cashew and mango farms. 

Stay safe and stay tuned for more updates, 

Thank you for your support.