In the Himalayan foothills, where narrow paths lead to villages with stone houses, the women of Uttarakhand are reviving an ancient alliance with local bees. Instead of imported species, they choose Apis cerana — small, hardy bees that have lived for centuries in the walls of houses and in tree hollows. This choice is not merely a habit: it helps preserve the pollinators without which the harvests of apples, apricots and wild herbs disappear.
Projects such as “The Art of Beekeeping” in the villages of Nala, Bhiri and Giriya have already trained dozens of women. They receive hives, learn to care for the colonies, harvest honey and even sell it to the state. Under “Madhu Shakti”, there are plans to train 750 women beekeepers, and income from honey and pollination could grow by a third. Such initiatives give families money while at the same time protecting the region’s biodiversity.
The local Apis cerana bees are better adapted to the mountain climate and fall ill less often than the introduced Apis mellifera. However, pesticides, deforestation and the changing of flowering plants threaten them. The women, who traditionally gather firewood and keep watch over the fields, are the first to notice these changes and the first to respond — planting honey plants, limiting chemicals and building simple hives in the walls.
Unlike large apiaries, where bees are often replaced with more productive but aggressive ones, here the natural rhythm is preserved. The bees swarm freely, and honey is harvested twice a year, leaving a reserve for the winter. This is not only economics but also part of the culture: honey is used in medicine, and the bees pollinate the orchards and forests around them.
The bond between the women and the bees recalls an old saying from other mountain lands: “Whoever cares for the small preserves the whole.” When one family sets up a hive, the neighbours see the result — more fruit, a stable income — and join in. Thus, step by step, the network of pollinators is being restored in the fragile Himalayan ecosystem.
Support for such initiatives through training and the marketing of honey helps not only the bees but also the women themselves to stay in their native villages instead of leaving for the cities.
