Come November, the sleepy hamlet of Araku, nestled in the Eastern Ghats, turns a spectacular shade of yellow. It’s in this season that niger flowers bloom in the valley. In one of the fields, B. Naga Koteswara Rao, 30, a professional beekeeper, pulls out a sticky rack of hexagon-shaped honeycomb amid the buzz of disturbed bees. With his face covered in a net to shield against stings, Mr. Rao begins the exercise of extracting honey. “As beekeepers, we have a reciprocal relationship with the bees. We harvest the honey and in return, the bees are taken care of by providing them with a suitable atmosphere,” he says. At a time when honeybee habitats are under threat, a group of beekeepers are leading a “sweet revolution” in Araku, 120 km from Visakhapatnam.
Beekeepers come to Araku from various parts of Andhra Pradesh during winter. The blue beehive boxes are placed in rows in the yellow niger fields. Each box has about one lakh worker bees, 100 drones and one queen bee. The boxes are uncovered only when the beekeeper wants to examine them or take out the frames. A small hole at the bottom of the box is meant for the bees to enter and exit. During the peak season, honey is harvested in 10 days and sold directly to tourists who throng the valley. Bottles go to retail outlets in cities too.
Honeybees, which lives in highly organised communities, are of great importance to farmers for pollination and maintaining the ecological balance. The recent increase in beekeeping in the Eastern Ghats has enhanced crop yields, farmers say. Many motivated youngsters have come out to explore this field to earn a living. Many of them are graduates who get trained in beekeeping and come to Araku to start their own enterprises.