These armed forces personnel safekeep borders & bees

BENGALURU: An unexpected visit by the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) DIG to the national-level horticulture fair at Hesaraghatta in Feb this year has now paved the way to a major beekeeping revolution in several ITBP battalions across India.
Captivated by the techniques of Meliponiculture (farming of stingless bees), demonstrated by scientists of the National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources (NBAIR), DIG Rana Yudhvir Singh decided to introduce stingless beekeeping practice among the jawans.Over the past week, 20 jawans from 10 battalions deployed in seven states visited NBAIR in Yelahanka to gain hands-on experience in stingless beekeeping. The jawans had both theory and practical classes on the NBAIR Yelahanka campus, which has an abundant floral diversity. The entomologists’ team, comprising AN Shylesha, TM Shivalingaswamy, T Prabhulinga, and Amala Udayakumar taught them techniques of setting up bee boxes, capturing colonies, multiplication of colonies and their maintenance.

Wherever, whenever
According to the scientists, meliponiculture is fast catching up as a practice across India and is the chosen method of apiary in Kerala and the northeastern states. All the jawans trained last week were youngsters and wanted to practise it wherever their battalions were located. “Much to our surprise, they wanted to practise beekeeping in their battalions, besides training other jawans. They were also keen to make use of Melipona honey that was produced by these bees internally within the battalion as part of the healthy nutritious diet,” said a senior entomologist, NBAIR.
Dr Udayakumar, senior scientist (entomology), NBAIR, further said jawans can practise it wherever they are posted, provided the region has enough diversity of flora. “Generally, bees are capable of foraging within a 1-2km radius from their hives. Depending on the floral diversity, the personnel can harvest honey any time of the year. However, spring season ensures considerable yield with a minimum of 600 to 700 gm of honey per harvest per hive,” the scientist explained.
“We wish to expand the activity to other battalions for promotion of meliponiculture,” ITBP DIG Singh said.
SN Sushil, director of NBAIR, Bengaluru, threw light on NBAIR’s readiness to handhold the battalions in the adoption of meliponiculture and also offered to extend training in biocontrol and its compatible technologies for pest management.