Facebook-f Instagram Twitter Youtube

About Bee City

BEE CITY, along with MYVETS CHARITABLE TRUST & RESEARCH CENTRE, focuses on research, education, the grassroots conservation, monitoring and protection of biodiversity through their active involvement in projects across various states in India. We are at the forefront of developing technology to track and interpret elephant movements, providing vital information for land-use management plans aimed at reducing Elephant-Human conflicts while allowing the former’s continued access to their forest range at Tilari jungle, Dodamarg (Goa border). We recognise the need to find solutions to reconcile elephants with the communities with whom they share their land. Our Asian Elephants and Bees Project is core to our mission to come up with innovative and cost-effective methods to reduce conflict and thereby creating Environmental & Social Impact at a larger level.

The Work of Wildlife Conservation

We installed Apis Cerana Indica beehive fences for 2 consecutive years in the Western Ghats of Tilari jungle, Dodamarg (Goa border) using the most basic type of beehive made from hollowed-out wood, and found that it very successfully deterred the elephants. Today, we maintain many beehive fences in various affected villages spanning across 200 hectares of Western Ghats of Tilari jungle, Dodamarg (Goa border) that are most affected by elephant crop raiding. These fences have been provided to the people, who desperately needed help, as their banana, pineapple and cashew plantations were being raided by elephants every year. Individual farmers, who benefit from the fences are our greatest ambassadors, who have now socially and financially benefitted from the initiative and now are also involved in aggressively selling the MADHUVANTM  brand forest honey. This method exploits a relationship that elephants have long shared with the bees in their natural environment, and it has been proven to be quite effective. Most importantly, this strategy also offers farmers an alternative to farming through the harvest and sale of natural/organic honey. It may also encourage local communities to plant and even reforest areas, as an increased abundance of plants would increase the bee population in Western Ghats of Tilari jungle, Dodamarg (Goa border).

“One of the most effective strategies we use to prevent Asian Elephant crop-raiding behaviour is to enclose crops and plantations with natural “beehive fences.”

Crop-raiding by Asian elephants devastated marginalised farmers leading to food insecurity, loss of income, and even death, as well as developed a negative attitude towards elephants.

Repeated farm-level trials of using beehive fences in the Western Ghats of Tilari jungle, Dodamarg (Goa border) have benefitted Tribal Rural Farmers with fewer elephants approaching their fields. As for communities willing to manage the bees, production of “elephant-friendly” honey is an extra benefit they are reaping through this initiative.

Surrounding crop plantations and fields with beehives attached to fence posts and strung together with wires served as a humane and eco-friendly way to protect crops from Asian Elephants.

The biggest threat to forest and wildlife is climate change; and this initiative to conserve both Asian Elephants & Bees have a tremendous potential to be a game-changer in preserving ecology in the Western Ghats of Tilari jungle, Dodamarg (Goa border).