About Founders – Bee City India

AN INSIGHT INTO FOUNDERS' JOURNEY

A wildlife veterinarian couple working towards the upliftment of tribal communities in the Western Ghats of Tilari Jungle, Dodamarg (Goa border) by helping them generate livelihood through honey bee farming and thereby preventing elephant-human conflicts in the region.

DR. MADHURITA GUPTA & DR. YUVRAJ R. KAGINKAR are the founders of BEE CITY India and the renowned NGO Myvets Charitable Trust & Research They are well-known wildlife veterinarians and a power couple working at the grassroots level for the noble cause of conservation of Asian Elephants in India. Their latest project of Honey Bee Farming and Elephant-Human Conflict Mitigation in Western Ghats of Tilari Jungle, Dodamarg (Goa border) is gaining ground and being applauded by not just locals, but also by wildlife veterans and experts across the globe. The duo have been involved in Honey Bee Research & Training of Rural Communities at the grassroots’ level, thus contributing towards Agri-based Rural Economy of India and providing sustainable livelihood to marginalised communities in and around the Western Ghats of Tilari jungle, Dodamarg (Goa border). Their work is presently benefitting communities in Tilari jungles, Sindhudurg, and Kolhapur, as it ensures sustainable development, food safety, land restoration, agroforestry, biodiversity, conservation, and most importantly, conservation of indigenous Apis Cerana Indica species of Honey Bees.

The couple have proven to be trailblazers in conserving the ecosystem and forest land along with wildlife and thus creating a greater impact on the overall biodiversity of the area. While working in the Western Ghats of Tilari Jungle, Dodamarg (Goa border), they became aware about the ongoing issues of increasing habitat fragmentation. As a result of human population growth in India, there has been an escalation in human-elephant conflict, especially among small-scale farmers and free-ranging Asian elephants raiding the crops and plantations near their protected area during the crop-ripening season. This was pushing the tribal farming communities to poverty, and they were forced to take extreme steps against the Asian Elephants.

The humble aspirations of Dr. Madhurita & Dr. Yuvraj transformed into success with support from KVIC (Khadi and Village Industries Commission), MSME (Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) & CBRTI (Central Beekeeping Research & Training Institute) as their mission-driven businesses attract mission-driven consumers. Social-impact entrepreneurship allows businesses to create new offerings that transform a market as well as society. And, by participating in the funding of MADHUVAN^TM, or even just by purchasing our products, consumers can contribute to the cause, and with our initiative, we are supporting communities that generate positive environmental, social, and economic impacts. MADHUVAN^TM is an eco-inclusive enterprise that stimulates sustainable development to reduce poverty and combat environmental degradation contributing towards a green economy.

SAVE ASIAN ELEPHANT & ASIAN ELEPHANT BEE PROJECT

OUR PROJECT: ELEPHANT CONSERVATION

“Asian Elephant & Bee Project” was successfully implemented at Tilari jungle, Dodamarg (Goa border), Sindhudurg, & Kolhapur for conservation of Wild Asian Elephants & support women community, self-help group through production of eco-friendly organic honey.

THE CONFLICTS : CROP RAIDS

Crop-raiding Elephants can cause significant damage to farmers’ livelihood putting both people and the Elephants in danger.

OUR SOLUTION: USING HONEY BEES

By building beehive fences around farmers’ field, we have successfully reduced the number of crop-raiding incidents and provided the farmers an Elephant-Friendly alternative with sustainable livelihood.

The prevention of Elephant-Human conflicts in the area needed some serious thought and a disruption. This is precisely when the couple came up with an innovative eco-friendly solution of installing Beehive Fences as a multi-dimensional conflict-mitigation tool for the farmers to co-exist with the elephants in the very same habitat. The couple implemented Beehive Fences in the cashew, banana and pineapple plantations along with installation of Honey Bee Boxes spread across different parts of Western Ghats of Tilari jungle, Dodamarg (Goa border) to prevent future crop raiding of the agricultural fields as well as conflicts.

SOME THOUGHT-PROVOKING FACTS

Asia’s elephant population has experienced a 90% decline in the past 100 years and the data suggests that as much as 95% of the original habitat of Asian Elephants have been lost over the same period, pushing the species of Asian Elephants towards endangerment. Incidences of Elephants raiding crops and villages are on the rise in India; this not just causes loss of human lives and agricultural yield, but also ends up killing the magnificent Asian Elephants as a result of retaliation conflicts. The naive idea of Beehive Fences not only kept large groups of Asian elephants from invading the agricultural farms but the farmers also benefitted socially and financially from the sale of 1000 kg of elephant-friendly organic forest honey. As the word spread, many rural farmers expressed interest in joining the project, taking the number of beehive fence-protected farms to 500. This demonstrates positive adoption of beehive fences as a community mitigation tool. These mutual efforts not only increased the agricultural production by 30% through bio-pollination in the various villages in and around the protected area but also provided the yield of organic raw unprocessed Forest Honey, which the duo is taking to urban markets with the brand MADHUVAN^TM