A new buzz

A bone-chilling cold has settled over the Himalayan district of Mandi, even as March is drawing to a close. But it does little to deter Gopal Singh, now nearing 70, from venturing outside. Accompanied by his grandson, Singh drives towards the biggest market in Janjehli valley in the stillness of the wee hours. Waiting for him at the bazaar is Bunty Chauhan with almost 50 boxes, each measuring half a metre on each side. Singh quickly inspects the boxes and asks Chauhan to place two of them in his car’s boot space. “The supply is limited, and I am running out of time,” Singh tells Down To Earth (DTE), as he drives off to his apple orchard, located some five kilometres away in his village Shihal. “These boxes contain 10,000 to 20,000 honeybees, which are in demand by apple growers in Janjehli and other parts of Himachal Pradesh,” says Chauhan, as he hands over the remaining boxes to those queued up at his shop that originally is a hardware store.

Perched at an altitude of 2,150 metres, Janjehli valley is known for its tranquil landscape and sprawling apple orchards. By the end of March, flower buds in most orchards in the valley have attained a delicate pink hue and are nearing blooming stage. “The mature ones will bloom within a week and will need to be pollinated over the next three to five days before the petals start dropping,” says Singh, who has placed the hive boxes at strategic locations in his orchard. Just till four to five years ago, he recalls, wild bees and butterflies used to buzz around the orchards in the valley. But then suddenly their numbers declined. Now, it is difficult to spot even a single pollinating insect around the trees. “We will lose an entire year’s harvest if we fail to ensure pollination during this crucial flowering stage,” says Singh.

The situation is no different in other parts of Himachal Pradesh. While Bunty Chauhan claims to be supplying 300 boxes to apple growers in Janjehli alone, Ram Lal Chauhan, an apple grower from Shimla district, says over 400,000 hive boxes are rented annually across the state. In fact, one of the objectives of the “development of beekeeping” scheme run by the state horticulture department is to help farmers with pollination to improve crop productivity. “The pollination crisis has deepened to such an extent that there is hardly any apple ...

This article was originally published as part of the cover story A new buzz in the June 1-15, 2025 print edition of Down To Earth