About‘SRISHTI Honey'

Apis dorsata - the source of ‘SRISHTI Honey'

It is the much-known forest bee variety, scientifically called Apis dorsata. It is also commonly referred to as the rock bee. It naturally appears in the plains and forest areas as per the flowering seasons of native vegetation. It is the prime-prolific pollinator, and it is mainly responsible for food productivity and diversity in nature. In other words, due to the process of sustained bee-pollination, the overall productivity of the crops and forest vegetation is enhanced multifold. Besides, Apis dorsata is also the prime resource of forest honey, made of nectar and pollen gathered by them from the uncontaminated flowers. Thus, by default, the forest honey obtained is organic in a true sense.

SRISHTI intervention in STRM

To ensure bee-friendly honey collection, SRISHTI employs its non-violent technique known as the SRISHTI Technology of Rock Bee Management (STRM). Youth from tribal communities, who traditionally hunt honey, have been trained using a specialized module to disseminate STRM. This method has been practiced in about four districts of Maharashtra and two districts of Chhattisgarh over the past 24 years through Gramsabhas. The trained honey collectors are provided with essential gear, including sting-protective clothing, ropes, rope ladders, buckets, tubs, torches, knives, containers, strainers, and other necessary equipment.

Social enterprise for forest honey

The production of honey and wax is undertaken by these trained tribal families, which is immediately purchased with the fare prices. The buyback arrangement is saving these primary honey producers from possible exploitation at the hands of local traders. The local agencies that are involved in buy-back arrangements of forest honey are encouraged further to establish low-cost facilities for honey-wax storage, processing, quality control, packaging, and market promotion. The processed, filtered, and packed honey is sold in an open market in retail or bulk, and thus, the backward-forward linkages of marketing are established to revive the forest honey-based social enterprise.

SRISHTI intervention & benefits

SRISHTI efforts are helping to rejuvenate the age-old traditional occupation of tribal people, which offers them a sustainable seasonal livelihood.
There is an availability of non-violent forest honey in the market.
Consumers are enjoying the highest quality therapeutic natural organic honey.
Thousands of forest bees are being saved to retain the most vital service of cross-pollination in nature.
The conservation of rock bee populations is bringing prosperity to ecology through the revival of the process of cross-pollination.
Overall, activities are being implemented by SRISHTI in various rock bee-rich pockets under the socio-welfare schemes of the state, central government, and CSR partnerships.