Dr.Gopal Paliwal from Nalwadi Wardha works with tribal groups for non-violent extraction of honey and does extensive training. He works with wild bee colonies and also on bee cultivation, only with tribal groups. His address is:

Dr Gopal Paliwal

Centre for Bee Development, Nalwadi, Wardha442

001 (MS), India 
gopalpaliwal@yahoo.com

Sumitra 

The following is an extract on Dr.Paliwal's work from *VIVEK DESHPANDE*  
Posted: Mar 18, 2005 at 0000 hrs IST 
 
Gopal Paliwal from the Gandhian backyard of Wardha - for 17 years, he has been combating traditional honey-collection methods-involving destruction of bees and combs-with a non-violent procedure that preserves wild bees and their combs for future tappings. 
 
''If we go on plundering rock bee colonies in the traditional method, in 10 years we will have no bees and no honey. It will also wipe out out forests as rock bees account for 90 per cent of the pollination,'' says Paliwal. 
 
Paliwal began working on non-violent honey collection-a method originally developed by the late Gandhian Amrutrao Ghatge at J C Kumarappa's Nai Talim workshop-in 1987 while at the Centre of Science for Villagers, Wardha. 
 
''In 1953, Ghatge developed a kit comprising a sting-proof, top-to-toe dress, a ladder and a clip that would attach the comb to the tree after the removal of the honey-pot. While working with tribals at Mendha Lekha village in Gadchiroli district in 1994, I realised they found the dress suffocating and clipping difficult. 
 
''Moreover, they didn't want to carry the water that the bees needed to be sprayed with to prevent them from attacking the hunter. That prompted me to make the method more user-friendly,'' Paliwal says. 
 
A biometric study of the comb-Paliwal has a doctorate in neuroendocrinology and the reproductive system of honey bees-revealed that a mere foot-long part of the average three-feet-long rock bee comb contains most of the ripened honey that young bees spurn in favour of non-ripened honey stored in the remaining part. 
 
''I redesigned the dress to make it more airy, introduced rope-climbing and eliminated the clipping operation. As against Ghatge's method, I cut out only the ripened honey part, which allowed the comb to hang on to the tree or rock,'' he adds. 
 
Interestingly, the bees fill up the cut-out portion within a month and it's ready for another harvest. ''This way, we can do six harvests in two seasons, as against only one in the traditional method. One comb fetches between 21-30 kgs in a year. The abandoned comb is then used to make natural wax,'' Paliwal says. 
 
The method, incidentally, was designed for the ferocious rock bees (Apis dorsata), which can't be tamed for bee-keeping, and which account for 18,000 tonnes of the 27,000 tonnes of honey produced annually in India. The domesticised Apis florea, Apis cerena indica and Apis mellifera contribute the remainder. 
 
With 275 hunters using Paliwal's methods, the innovator says honey worth Rs 2.5 crore has been produced across 50 villages since 1998. ''In Wardha alone, hunters with the Centre for Bee Development have produced honey worth Rs 38 lakh in the past five years. We recently exported 25 quintals of our Nisarg honey to Singapore,'' says Paliwal. ''If, earlier, they earned Rs 1,500 a year, now they earn Rs 10,000-30,000.'' 
 
Benya Jambhekar and Dhanraj Koche from the Susarda block of malnutrition-affected Melghat region of Vidarbha vouch for Paliwal's claims. ''We have stopped migrating for work now,'' they say. 
 
But can the likes of Jambhekar and Koche afford Paliwal's Rs 6,500-kit? ''We have it financed through the District Rural Development Agency, Oxfam and the Council for Activation of People's Action in Rural Technology,'' says Paliwal. ''Recently, the Chhattisgarh government gave Rs 2,200 individual loans to 60 hunters for replacement of their worn-out dresses," Paliwal says. 
 
Paliwal, too, has received his reward: He won the Young Scientist award at a international honey conference two years ago, has had his work recorded by the United Nations Development Programme. And has hundreds of tribals from 12 districts across many states thanking him for changing their lives. 

Source:  Earthcare Bahamas