Buzzing for the BEES


Sunday, 24th February, was celebrated at National Bee Day, with an interesting programme held at Maharashtra Nature Park, Mumbai. Well, while most people may not be particularly fond by bees and would in fact like to keep a safe distance from them, their importance to us human beings should definitely not be underestimated. An often quoted saying, attributed to Albert Einstein, declares:  "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man." Although it is not certain if these are indeed the words of Einstein (he was a physicist not an apiologist), it is a warning we need to heed.  

 Bees are among the most important pollinators and their absence would cause the productivity of agriculture to fall dramatically. According to a U.N. report published in 2011, of the 100 crop species that provide 90 per cent of the world’s food, over 70 are pollinated by bees. Unfortunately, bee populations across the world are facing a drastic decline. In U.K. the present bee population is half of what it was 25 years ago. In India, the population of the native Indian honey bee, Apis dorsata, has declined by more than 20 percent in the last 10 years. 


Several factors are responsible for this unfortunate decline of bee populations, chief among them being the widespread use of chemical pesticides and herbicides, habitat loss and climate change. Air pollution, which interferes with the ability of the bees to find flowering plants, is another factor to blame. Some research studies have also been suggesting that the recent increase in atmospheric electromagnetic radiation as a result of growing usage of cell phones and wireless communication towers probably interferes with the bees’ ability to navigate.



 Avoiding the use of insecticides, growing bee-friendly flower plants and supporting local beekeepers are a few small but significant steps that we can take to help bees flourish again.  






 

 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

From Ideas to Action—Sacred Heart High School, Vashi

Image
25th January 2011 ‘This is my plant!’ piped a tiny student of Sacred Heart High School, proudly showing off her sapling. We were impressed—these students, and their eco-club in particular, have taken decisive steps to make their school a greener and healthier place.       Our visit began with the eco-club, led by their teacher Mrs. Nirmala, showing us their garbage management system, where wet waste is composted and used as fertilizer for plants. This led us to their next initiative, a small garden of medicinal plants. They then explained how they’ve succeeded in combining environmental consciousness with utility by setting up an organic garden where they grow vegetables with the manure generated from the school’s wet waste. They also went on to show us how they are trying to involve other students in their greening activities by getting them to bring their own plants to the nursery.
Read more

St. Paul's Convent, Dadar Girls Get Set to Audit School Waste

Image
September 13, 2011 Team GreenLine saw itself at St. Paul's Girls' Convent High School, Dadar on a warm Tuesday morning, and it was there to conduct the school's first session, in this, the Second Edition of the Green Schools Campaign.There were a good number of things we noticed as we entered the school premises itself. For one, even though there is not too much space that the school can consider its campus, there is a whole lot of environment-friendly work being done here. We noticed a number of trees all around, and also the presence of dustbins all over the place. What however, really caught attention was the fact that even though the school was going through a recess, and even though there were students eating all over the place, there was not a single chip packet, chocolate wrapper, or food waste anywhere to be seen. This shows that the girls know the value of keeping the school as tidy as possible and also that unnecessary wastage itself is wrong.  Our session s
Read more

Setting the Standard—Sacred Heart High School, Vashi

Image
3rd October 2011 The students of Sacred Heart High School Vashi are not only implementing green projects in their campus, but are also making sure that environmental consciousness becomes a permanent part of their school culture. In their second session on Environmental Leadership, the students of the Eco-Club presented the draft environmental policy that they have been working on. The most striking feature of the policy so far is that the draft was prepared in an entirely democratic fashion. The process began with all students from Stds. III to X participating in a competition to select the best policy suggestions. After this, the teachers selected the best suggestions, which were debated by the eco-club members and the house captains. The policy was then drafted by the eco-club. The environmental policy covers four sectors—Supplies, Waste, Energy and Events—and includes a variety of possible practices, from reusing decorations at events to having regular energy consumption report
Read more