About 200 tribals have been trained in honey extracting in Narayanpur, Bijapur and Dantewada districts of insurgency infested Bastar region by the State Science and Technology Institute.
The villagers of Behabeda, Kandadi, Sargipal, Duggabegal in Narayanpur district and Kuturu in Dantewada district have adopted new scientific methods of honey collection.
The scientific way of extracting honey is coined as ‘’Rock Bee-Honey Harvesting’’. The tribals have been trained in procuring honey. They have been educated in collecting honey from the same comb thrice without burning the honey-comb.
The tribals had been told not to smoke out the honey-comb. Honey can be procured/collected by not hurting the bees. The population of bees will increase if the modern process is followed.
Officials stated that two-and-a-half quintal honey was procured and it was purchased by the Centre of Discovery For Society at the rate of Rs 150 per kilogram.
The income of the honey procurers have been increased manifold in the tribal hamlets of Narayanpur, Dantewada and Bijapur districts. Earlier the honey procurers adopted the old method and the income was limited. Kits have been distributed during the training period.
The Chhattisgarh Government has established four honey processing centres for the processing and bottling of the honey collected by the forest dwellers in the State, officials stated.
In order to provide them standard price, the State Government directly collects honey from the collectors. The processing centres had been established in Bilaspur, Jashpur, Bhanupratappur and Kawardha.
This apart, the State Government has also raised the purchase rate of small forest produce several times during the last 10 years. Mainly tendupatta, saal seed, harra, behada, gond, chironji, aonla, honey and other small forest produce are available in Chhattisgarh’s forests, officials stated.
To provide genuine price to tendupatta collection, the State Government, in the year 2013, has increased its collection price from Rs 1,100 to Rs 1,200 per standard bag. As a result, 13.76 lakh families have collected over 14.92 lakh standard bag good quality tendupatta in 2014. Rs 180 crore has been distributed as wages. Rs 310 crore has been given as dividend for the last collection year 2012 and Rs 82 crore bonus was distributed to the collectors in the year 2013.