The society hopes to revive bee-keeping as an alternate livelihood in Uttarakhand through honey production, promote bee conservation and improve productivity of crops, horticulture and forest produce.

Apis cerana indica is the native bee of the hills of Uttarakhand. Traditionally, this was the bee used in wall beehives to produce honey. However, in recent years, people’s enthusiasm for bee-keeping and honey production is decreasing. There is need to rejuvenate bee keeping in Uttarakhand both as an alternate livelihood and for increased crop production.

ONGC Ltd is funding a program run by the Devalsari society to train farmers in the Corbett landscape. The program covers 5 villages and 40 villagers. The villagers have been given subsidized bee-boxes and have been provided bee-keeping capacity building and marketing support.

The Society conducts training programs to promote adoption of bee keeping as an alternate livelihood. Arun Prasad has conducting bee-keeping training programs in Almora and Tehri Garhwal Districts as part of the Ajeevika project of the Uttarakhand Government.

Bee keeping training programs

The Society offers bee keeping training programs on an end to end basis including assessment and survey of locations for suitability of bee-keeping, training of local people in rearing bees, designing appropriate bee hives and bee boxes, and finally sourcing the honey produced for sale on a no-profit, no-loss basis.

If you are interested in conducting bee keeping training programs in your area contact Arun Prasad at arunapis1@gmail.com or call at 8650645385 .

Selling honey

The Society sources honey from villagers and sells it on a no-profit, no-loss basis. It has recently installed a honey filtration machine at Thatyud and intends to process and sell honey under its own brand called “Deodar”.