Honeybee fence to prevent elephants from entering agricultural lands… Test research in India!
Claim
Elephants are afraid of honeybees. And hence farmers in African countries are making honeybee fence instead of electric fences. This saves elephant lives. Pollination is also increased because of honeybees which in turn increases the yield.
Rating
Explanation
Farmers near forests and hill areas make electric fences to prevent elephants from entering the farmlands and destroying the crops. Elephants fall prey to illegal electric fences sometimes.
As mentioned in the claim elephants are afraid of honeybees. In African countries, honeybee fence is made to save elephants.
Kenya National Park has implemented the honeybee fence project after researching elephants’ fear of honeybees to reduce the destruction of crops and to reduce elephant-human attacks. Lucy King, who was awarded for implementing the research project has spoken at the TED event, California, in 2019.
An Indian Express article dated April 2021 reports that “As a part of RE-HAB (Reducing Elephant – Human Attacks using Bees) boxes with bees are being placed in several locations near Chelur village on Karnataka’s Kodagu by the Khadi & Village Industries Commission (KVIC). The total cost of the projects is around Rs.15 lakh”.
Congratulating @kvicindia for implementing innovative solution to reduce elephant-human interaction with Project RE-HAB.
The bees irritate the elephant and deter them. By putting up bee boxes on the periphery of forests, they have reduced elephant movement in human territory. pic.twitter.com/DaiMK1gSFU
— Nitin Gadkari (@nitin_gadkari) April 8, 2021
Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Highways and Transport, has appreciated tho effort by tweeting the CCTV footage of elephants returning after getting irritated by the bee boxes placed.
Tamil Nadu Agricultural University website has mentioned that honeybees play a major role in good yield because of pollination and hence the western countries consider honeybees as ‘Agri Fairies’.
Conclusion
It is true that honeybee fences are made to prevent elephants. This research has been tested in India also. The effort is to reduce the destruction of crops and to avoid human-elephant conflicts.
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