Pilot apiculture project inaugurated for setting up bee

A bee corridor has been inaugurated as a pilot apiculture project in Rajarhat area to encourage conservation of bees in an urban ecosystem with the objective of creating livelihood opportunities for people around the place.

From an environmental point of view, such an effort will also restore balance of the bee population that is under threat, an official said.

"It is possible to have a honey production centre in an urban context. Created with minimum effort and a dose of technology, such a centre could improve the earnings, revenues and incomes of people around the cities," Debasish Sen, Hidco chairmann and state additional chief secretary, said.

He was speaking during the unveiling of the WEBEL-BCCI tech incubation centre bee corridor project in Eco Park near here on Thursday.

Since Rajarhat has been developed as a Smart city with urban edifices and pre-planned green landscapes, having such corridors would also bring in a rural flavour within the urban setting, officials said.

Bees and insects, that occupy the bottom rung of the ecological chain, act as natures waste disposers that is crucial to the process of decomposition, they said.

Arijit Das, who has set up a city based biotechnology start-up on apiculture with artificial intelligence and IOT, said the health of the bees are monitored from a remote location through cloud-based technology and cameras.