Elephants could be “honey trapped” to safety from all kinds of dangers, according to three leading honey bee cultivators in Kerala’s Ernakulam district. A Christian priest, who has returned to his native village after nearly four decades of spiritual doctoring in the US and two of his friends in the village have found that honey bees could be used to keep elephants confined to deep forests.
Father George Varghese, the shepherd who led thousands of sheep to the way of Jesus Christ, Baby Thottathil and Reji Cherian, who took to apiculture in a big way was in for a surprise when they noted that elephants from the Western Ghats stopped attacking the farm lands in the periphery of the forests where sugar cane and plantains were cultivated. “Earlier, herds of pachyderms were regular visitors to these farm lands to steal the entire crops. But once we started honey cultivation in the farm lands , the elephants stopped trespassing into the farms,” said Baby.
According to Reji, the elephants were scared away by the buzz of the bees. “The wild elephants are frightened of the bees and the physical properties of their humming,” said Reji. Now farmers in Kuttampuzha and Malayatoor Ranges where they have installed honey bee colonies can breath easy because of the security provided by the honey bees.
This has been taken note by the authorities of Indian Railways who are getting ready to launch “operation honey bee” along the railway track beteen Coimbatore and Palakkad where many elephants have been run over by trains despite taking all precautions. “The elephants crossing the tracks in search of water and food are the victims. Since the tracks run close to the forest zones, it is routine for the elephants to get hit by the trains. The dense forest growth block the sight of the approaching trains and the elephants get caught between the tracks,” said a senior official of Southern Railway based at Palakkad.
Ashwini Vaishnaw, union railway minister, who was in Chennai on Thursday said that the Railway would soon build underpasses for the smooth passage of the elephants. “We have identified the locations where the underpasses have to be built. The ministry is in talks with the union ministry of environment and forests regarding this issue,” said Vaishnaw.
A Railway official said that the bees would keep the elephants from accident prone spots and could be used to guide them to take safe routes to the underpasses.
The minute shaped bees to help the biggest mammal is a kind of tribute to the Panchathanthra Stories which taught us that there are instances when even a rat could save the life of a lion fallen into traps laid by the hunters!
