Latest news with #Apismellifera
Time of India
22-06-2025
- Science
- Time of India
CUSB gets Rs 30 lakh grant for beekeeping and pollinator research
Patna: National Bee Board (NBB), under the Union ministry of agriculture and farmers' welfare, has awarded Rs 30.96 lakh to the agriculture department of Central University of South Bihar (CUSB) for completion of its two innovative research projects on beekeeping and pollinator conservation. The principal investigator of both these projects, Hemant Kumar Singh, said while one project will deal with the establishment of a high-quality nuclear stock centre, the other one will concentrate on the development of bee-friendly flower gardens. The main objective of these projects is to establish a permanent nuclear stock centre for protected, strengthened and improved colonies of Apis mellifera bee species, which will provide the necessary base for quality bee stock production. In addition, a chain of bee-friendly flower gardens will be developed to provide pollinators with a year-round source of nutrients, he said. Singh further pointed out that this project will not only strengthen the health and pollination services of bees, but will also be a concrete initiative towards innovation and environmental balance in the agriculture sector, while providing new self-employment opportunities to rural youths. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Use an AI Writing Tool That Actually Understands Your Voice Grammarly Install Now Undo Congratulating the university's agriculture department for the sanction of this award, CUSB's vice-chancellor K N Singh said these projects, on completion, will provide training and skill development in beekeeping, colony management, and honey production to rural youth and agriculture students and help the department establish a climate-friendly 'mother orchard', in which high quality fruit species will be preserved and propagated, so that the continuous availability of pollen and nectar to the bees can be ensured.
Hindustan Times
21-06-2025
- Science
- Hindustan Times
Shy, secretive world of bees
Incredible India houses a dazzling richness of bee diversity. Of the 20,925 species recognised globally, India hosts 755. Further, of the nine traditional honey bee species of the world, India is the home to four of them. Many of the world's prominent land masses such as North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa and Australia have only one honey bee species, the Western honey bee (Apis mellifera). These hard-working insects which play a foundational role in pollination and some yield nature's incredible amrit or nectar in the guise of honey. Despite India fortuitously sporting such an array of bees, these insects are under increasing threat from varied quarters. Apis cerena in a wall and (right) hollow in tree roots, PU. (Arun Bansal) The diversity of bee existence in India was underscored by observations by the naturalist, Arun Bansal, of these insects 'unusually' pouring out of dark hollows in the roots of a tree at the Panjab University's (PU) Dr PN Mehra Botanical Gardens and from a secretive hole in a reddish wall at the Teachers' Flats. The entrance to the cavity nests was small and thus easier guarded against predators such as ants, hornets, wasps, birds and humans. There were multiple hives within. These were not the typical, huge hives one associates hanging in the open from trees, underneath the eaves of buildings and ceilings of tall water tanks etc, and which are formed by the famous Rock honey bee (Apis dorsata). These big Rock bees are the ones infamous for delivering dreaded stings when disturbed. On the other hand, the honey bees coming out of the PU tree and wall cavity were smaller than the Rock bees. I sought their identification from professor Pardeep Chhuneja, an award-winning apiculture scientist and former head, department of entomology, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana. 'It is the native species, Apis cerena cerena (Asian honey bee), in the tree roots and wall of PU. Along with the Apis mellifera (Western honey bee), which is an imported bee for apiculture, these two species are cavity-dwelling ones. These two species are the ones used for beekeeping in India,' Chhuneja told this writer. Scientific research has established that the Apis cerena can forage as far as 1.5-2.5 km from the hive. They gather nectar and pollen from the flowers. Nectar is turned into honey by these 'flying Lilliputians of the natural world' and is stored to provide energy in the guise of carbohydrates for adults and larvae of the bee colony. Honey-making is not an enterprise that nature has predestined for human lip-smacking but is actually for the benefit of the bees themselves. Some forest department employees criminally smoke out, destroy and displace hives of wild Rock honey bees under their protection in wildlife sanctuaries. They steal honey from the mouths of the hungry little ones to oblige senior officers/VIPs by delivering honey jars to official residences. Bees are remarkable, cooperative creatures but we know little of them more vaguely as pollinators. Honey bees are able to maintain temperatures with tolerable limits even when the outside temperatures range from freezing point to searing heat. This task is carried out by the fanning bees which stand at the 'doorway to their hive and produce a current of air by beating their wings, which serves to air condition the hive'. The Apis cerena (AC) resorts to various colony defensive behaviours to ward off predators, such as abdomen shaking, hissing (through wing vibrations) and group defence (including grasping, pulling, and biting, killing by overheating). 'Heat balling is a unique defence of AC to kill predatory hornets. Several hundred bees surround the hornet in a tight ball and vibrate their thoracic muscles to produce heat. The AC workers are able to raise the temperature inside the ball to an average of 46°C for approximately 20 minutes. This is high enough to kill the hornet inside, but not high enough to kill the bees, who can tolerate temperatures up to 48°C and 50°C,' states a research paper, Comparative Study of Apis cerena and Apis mellifera, by DR Katuwal, Alina Pokhrel and Dipak Khanal. vjswild2@
Hindustan Times
19-06-2025
- Health
- Hindustan Times
That stinging feeling: Rising mercury, nectar shortages trigger bee attacks
Ravishankar Agarwal, a 70-year-old iron trader known for his punctuality and soft-spoken manner, stepped out of his car on an April morning in Kanpur for a morning walk. As he fell a few steps behind his companions near the tree-lined flank of the Cantonment area, a furious swarm of bees descended without warning. Agarwal's death, though sudden, was part of a quiet, unsettling pattern that has emerged across India in recent months. In just the last three months, bee attacks have surged and three deaths have been reported in Uttar Pradesh. Two of the deaths, including Agarwal's, are from Kanpur. The month of May alone brought at least six separate attacks across the state. Among the injured were two Indian Administrative Service officers, and a number of state police services officers in Lalitpur, Bundelkhand. A number of trainee forest guards in Mirzapur in eastern Uttar Pradesh landed in hospital because of the swarm in May. The bees, it seems, are not distinguishing between farmer or official, morning walker or forester. The pattern has become so alarming that the Uttar Pradesh government has now proposed adding bee attacks to its list of recognised disasters. In a recent meeting chaired by the state's chief secretary, it was proposed that victims of such attacks would be eligible for compensation under disaster relief provisions—up to ₹4 lakh in the case of death. According to the proposal, bee attacks will now be treated alongside incidents involving wild animal encounters and house collapses. Scientists, who study bee behaviour, see the recent aggression not as randomness, but as an ecological warning. The surge in attacks is directly linked to environmental stress, according to Dr Ankit Upadhyaya, an entomologist at the Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur. 'Bees are struggling to find food,' he explained. 'The flowering cycle has been severely disrupted by soaring temperatures and erratic rainfall. With fewer blooms, bees face nectar shortages that leave colonies on edge—starved, hypersensitive and primed for defense,' he said. The resulting aggression, he noted, is a stressed reaction to scarcity. When hungry hives are disturbed—by pedestrians, by traffic, by construction and by birds – they respond out of instinct for survival. In Kanpur, as in many urban and rural ecosystems, the bees are not just attacking, they're reacting. The scientists, who work with bees daily in controlled settings, said the signs of distress are not abstract theories but observable shifts. 'We're dealing with domesticated species here—Apis mellifera and Apis cerana—and even they're showing agitation,' said Dr. Upadhaya, who supervises student training at apiary sites in Kanpur. 'Normally, these bees are docile and don't attack. But with the rise in temperatures, they react sharply, especially during feeding. When we offer sugar concentrate, they sometimes swarm aggressively at first, then settle. That spike in hostility wasn't typical before,' he said. The behaviour is consistent in the field, Upadhyaya added, suggesting that environmental stress is overriding their domesticated temperament. 'Bees are under pressure—and like any species, they adapt under pressure,' explained Dr Akhilesh Singh, an associate professor at Rani Laxmi Bai Central University for Agriculture in Jhansi, who has studied bee behavior extensively across Nagaland and Bundelkhand. 'India hosts four main types of honeybees, but it's Apis dorsata and Apis florea that are inherently more aggressive. Dorsata, in particular, has a strong defensive instinct. It doesn't hesitate—it retaliates, and once provoked, the colony doesn't stop.' What makes Apis dorsata especially formidable, Singh said, is its use of biochemical signaling during an attack. 'Each sting releases an alarm pheromone—a scent trail that tells the rest of the colony to join in. It's not just one bee defending—it's a cascade.' In such cases, the initial sting isn't the end of the event; it's the beginning of escalation. Scientists point out that as food becomes scarce, bees are now swarming more often and covering greater distances than before. 'Bees usually forage within a three-kilometre radius of their hive,' explained Dr Upadhaya. 'But when flowers are fewer and nectar runs low, they expand their search—and that increases the chances of encounters with people,' he said. In many recent cases, the bees weren't defending a hive—they were in transit, unsettled, scanning for food. When hungry swarms feel threatened, even by accident, they respond with immediate aggression. The incidents in Lalitpur and Sonbhadra, where multiple people were stung, are stark reminders of this pattern. 'You'll notice many of these attacks are happening in areas that are less crowded,' he added. 'That's because the bees are migrating away from depleted zones and passing through quieter, more rural spaces where their movement isn't noticed until it's too late.' In east UP's Chandauli, a team of engineers came under attack during routine construction. 'Their equipment was causing 'kampan'—tremors or vibrations—which bees are extremely sensitive to,' said Dr Singh. 'To a stressed swarm, even the sound or shake of a drill can feel like a threat,' he said. Researches have looked at how rising temperatures affect bees—their flight, behaviour and ability to find food—but scientists say much more needs to be studied, especially in India. 'We know heat makes bees more restless. It affects how they fly, how active they are, and how well they can gather nectar,' said Dr Akhilesh Singh. 'But we don't fully understand what happens when this heat stress continues over time—especially in noisy, crowded cities where their natural habitats are already shrinking.' Most of the current studies, he said, come from colder countries where bees face different conditions. 'In India, bees live in much hotter and more unstable environments. Their reactions may be very different—not just stronger, but completely different in nature,' Singh said. Both he and Dr Upadhaya agreed that India needs long-term research focused on local bee species, across different regions and seasons. 'We're noticing changes, but to understand them clearly, we need more detailed studies. Right now, we're seeing warning signs. What we need is a clearer picture of what's really happening.' Dr SN Sunil Pandey, a senior weather scientist at the CSA University, said this year's heat began much earlier than usual. 'In March, April, and May, temperatures were already six to eight degrees above normal,' he explained. 'Even when the daytime heat dropped a little later, it stayed high for most of the day. didn't get cooler like they usually do.' This constant heat, scientists said, has added to the stress on bees and may be one of the reasons why they've become more aggressive. The impact of heat is showing in flower fields too. CP Awasthi, district horticulture officer of Kannauj, a region known for using flowers to make itr (traditional perfume), said the rising temperatures have clearly hurt flower production. 'There's definitely been a drop in flower yield,' he said. 'Nectar production is down, and the pollination process has also been affected.' Scientists at the Indian Institute of Pulses Research, though not officially allowed to speak to the media, echoed this concern. They said bees play a crucial role in pollination, and that role is being disrupted. 'Bees have their own way to cool down—they buzz their wings 1,200 to 1,300 times per minute,' a researcher explained. 'But with constant heat in the air, even that coping mechanism is starting to fail.' Amid growing concern, scientists are also offering clear advice to the public—especially those venturing into forested or semi-rural areas. 'Avoid wearing strong perfumes or black clothing,' said Dr. Upadhaya. 'Both tend to attract bees. Dark colours can appear threatening to them, and scented products confuse their senses, making them more likely to approach—and possibly attack.' If a swarm does descend, the most important thing is to remain still. 'Don't swat or wave your arms. Any sudden movement is seen as aggression,' warned Dr. Singh. 'Lie down flat on the ground and stay motionless. Struggling only makes the bees more defensive.' Using leaves to gently brush off stings, without rubbing the skin, can help reduce the spread of venom. And if there's a water source nearby, take shelter in it—bees typically won't follow into water. 'These are basic steps, but they can be life-saving,' Singh added. 'The key is not to panic. Bees aren't looking to attack—they're reacting to fear.'
The Age
12-06-2025
- Science
- The Age
‘Wake-up call': A sting in the bee love story for native pollinators
Public attention on the plight of European honeybees could be coming at a cost for 1700 species of Australian native bees that also play a crucial role as pollinators. Dr Judy Friedlander, an adjunct fellow in sustainability at the University of Technology Sydney, said hosting native bees in backyards or on balconies was one of the biggest things that urban dwellers could do to boost biodiversity. 'When people read about the supposed decline of European bee here due to things like the varroa mite, they panic, and they think that it's the end of the world and the end of our agriculture, but it's not,' Friedlander said. 'Beekeepers should be supported, and it needs to be taken seriously, but the focus on [varroa mite] has been to the detriment of native bees and native beekeepers. The whole varroa mite thing should be a big wake-up call because when we start relying on one species for our crop pollination, we're in big trouble.' Dr Katja Hogendoorn, of the University of Adelaide, said there were not enough native bees to pollinate all crops, so European honeybees (Apis mellifera) were also needed – but they did not belong in nature. Hogendoorn, who recently published a paper that described 71 new species of native bee, said there was 'a lot to discover still'. She previously published a review that found European honeybees compete with wild bees globally, including native species in Australia. 'In my head, there is no shadow of a doubt that honeybees, especially in this country where we've got enormous densities, have a negative impact on our native bee populations,' Hogendoorn said.
Sydney Morning Herald
12-06-2025
- Science
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘Wake-up call': A sting in the bee love story for native pollinators
Public attention on the plight of European honeybees could be coming at a cost for 1700 species of Australian native bees that also play a crucial role as pollinators. Dr Judy Friedlander, an adjunct fellow in sustainability at the University of Technology Sydney, said hosting native bees in backyards or on balconies was one of the biggest things that urban dwellers could do to boost biodiversity. 'When people read about the supposed decline of European bee here due to things like the varroa mite, they panic, and they think that it's the end of the world and the end of our agriculture, but it's not,' Friedlander said. 'Beekeepers should be supported, and it needs to be taken seriously, but the focus on [varroa mite] has been to the detriment of native bees and native beekeepers. The whole varroa mite thing should be a big wake-up call because when we start relying on one species for our crop pollination, we're in big trouble.' Dr Katja Hogendoorn, of the University of Adelaide, said there were not enough native bees to pollinate all crops, so European honeybees (Apis mellifera) were also needed – but they did not belong in nature. Hogendoorn, who recently published a paper that described 71 new species of native bee, said there was 'a lot to discover still'. She previously published a review that found European honeybees compete with wild bees globally, including native species in Australia. 'In my head, there is no shadow of a doubt that honeybees, especially in this country where we've got enormous densities, have a negative impact on our native bee populations,' Hogendoorn said.
