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