By The Editor
Bee-keeping is very profitable venture which does not require much space nor much investment either. In the year 2020, seven simple folks from Chigitchakgre village under Gambegre development block, West Garo Hills district after attending training programme on bee-keeping started the business which boosted their family income. Seeing their success more villagers joined in and soon with active support from village headman or nokma every household began rearing bees to supplement their economy. Chigitchakgre has now become model village not only in the block but beyond and as more villages followed in their footsteps, the industry department of the state took notice of such rapid developments. North Eastern Hill University (NEHU), Tura Campus too stepped in and decided to adopt the village by providing its villagers with financial support. With fund from Chattisgarh government, Raipur the District Commerce and Industries Centre (DCIC), in collaboration with NEHU, Tura Campus conducted five-day training on bee-keeping for villagers. Pro-Vice Chancellor of NEHU, Tura Campus Professor Sujata Gurudev, attending valedictory programme said that honey from Garo Hills is in high demand and assured the villagers of continual support.
Functional Manager of DCIC, Tura and Nodal Officer, Apiculture Mission appreciated the initiative taken by village nokma, Lithin  Ch. Marak who in his reply also reciprocated and at the same time requested for more collaboration in future. Marak added that bees are also beneficial for agriculture and horticultural crops and reminded that preservation of eco-system including environment is highly essential. There are about 15,000-20,000 different kinds of bees living today and many of them survive in jungles and forests away from human habitat. Ninety-five per cent of them are solitary bees that live alone and only five per cent are social bees that live together in colonies comprising hundreds and in some cases comprising thousands of members. Of all this latter category, honey bee is the most social and honey that such bees produce is considered best.
In each colony of honey bees there are thousands of them about 30,000 or more consisting of three different types: a queen, several hundred drones, and thousands of worker bees. Queen bee is head of the colony and is looked upon as matriarch since she is actually the mother of entire colony and hence the whole hive is one big family of bees. Drones are males of the family who do not take part at all in any productive activity of the hive except in fertilising eggs of the queen and hence they appear lazy to humans who observe them. Worker bees, as the name itself implies, do all the work in the hive in systematic manner without necessity of anyone issuing orders at all. Though they are females and smaller than the queen in size yet they cannot lay eggs. Worker bees are busy in collecting pollen and nectar from flowers and plants for converting them into honey which serve them also food. Guard bees standing at entrance of the hive act like police and prevent the colony from intruders.