[Sustainability Agenda] How this Himachal company promotes ethical beekeeping, creates employment opportunities for rural women


Malini Kochupillai and Kunal Singh first met in 2017 at an exhibition by Khoj, an international association of artists, where they struck up a conversation about community engagement through the arts.

“At the time, I was interested in raw honey. So one of the first things we talked about was how he could find raw honey in the Himachal and bring it to me, ”shares Malini.

This search for honey led Kunal to learn more about the conditions of beekeepers in his hometown of Nurpur, Himachal Pradesh. To help these beekeepers solve some of the challenges that stood in their way, Malini and Kunal co-founded Tenacious bee collective.

One of the main problems was that the honey industry was an exploitation, not only for the people involved, but also for the bees themselves. The genuine, good-quality honey that the Himachal region was known for had started to disappear and its demand began to decline as well.

“The vicious cycle we saw made us both irresistible in different ways. Kunal was saddened that the art of honey making was being lost and I was interested in creating community solutions around this idea, ”said Malini. Social history.

Find support and support in the community

Tenacious Bee Collective addresses multiple issues through the prism of ethical beekeeping with environmentally friendly practices to enable more employment and income opportunities.

The idea was quickly supported by a small seed funding from a supporter. Currently, Tenacious Bee Collective is primed.

In 2018, the collective found support in the city of Barsar in Himachal Pradesh. He also found the patronage of Kirna Devi, the Pradhan (Chief of Panchayat) over there.

As some residents had attended beekeeping sessions conducted a few years ago, they already had bees and hives, but no follow-up had taken place.

The organization transformed one of the nursing homes, belonging to the panchayat, its operating floor, where it organized workshops, as well as the Organization of Crafts and Social Development (CSDO), for 12 women who learned the basics of making beeswax ointments, soaps and candles.

These products, along with unpasteurized raw honey, are available to consumers on the Tenacious Bee Collective website and in select stores across India. Besides sales, he gains partnerships and subscriptions.

With the company, Kunal also hoped to create jobs for the local community instead of being forced to look for work in the city. “Women have now taken matters into their own hands and continue to champion the cause,” says Malini.

Make beekeeping sustainable

In its intervention, Tenacious Bee Collective attempted to promote more sustainable beekeeping practices. Malini shares that the Himachal region has a long history of beekeeping, and beehives are often raised in homes, farms and forest areas.

The symbiotic relationship between bees and humans has been disrupted by the advent of industrial-scale honey production, where adulteration has become a growing problem.

The exploitation of bees has also led to population decline over the past 40 to 50 years, shares Malini. “You can also extract too much honey and leave nothing for the bees to feed on,” she explains.

Bees cannot make honey all year round. They can only do this during the flowering season when it is not raining. So bees need resources to thrive for the rest of the seasons.

If there is no honey for them, they are forced to survive on sugar, which only provides them with sustenance and therefore does not provide them with the health necessary to harvest honey in the seasons to come.

Tenacious Bee Collective thus encourages ethical practices, where beekeepers leave enough honey for bees and also use double chamber hives, which allows them to make honey while keeping babies separate.

It also guarantees quality beekeeping, where beekeepers are discouraged from harvesting the nectar before it turns into honey.

“Our [aim] right now is to move as many beekeepers as possible to these best practices so that their bees are healthy, ”said Malini.

She emphasizes that the role of the collective is to mitigate the risk taken by beekeepers. Efforts are also being made to encourage the planting of flora more respectful of bees, thus impacting ecology on a larger scale.

“Farmers, beekeepers and others who engage in these activities are true stewards of nature. It is therefore our job at the community level to make them responsible ”, underlines Malini.

Currently, the Tenacious Bee Collective network involves six beekeepers, five farmers directly, and 40 beekeepers indirectly, where it helps them access government programs and other necessary supports.

In fact, he also trained 40 community members in beekeeping.

Through his communications, he hopes to inspire people to think about where their food comes from and to make more responsible choices in the long run.


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