Nainital: Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) chairman Manoj Kumar inaugurated the ambitious Re-Hab project (Reducing Human Attacks using Honey Bees) set up by the commission at Chausla village in the forest range of Fatehpur in Nainital today.
Implemented by the commission, which function under the ministry of micro, small and medium enterprises, government of India, the chairman also distributed 330 bee-boxes, bee-colonies and toolkits along with the honey extractors to the rural beneficiaries in Chausla village, free of cost.
On this occasion, the KVIC chairman informed the gathering that the commission, under the valuable guidance of Prime Minister Modi, is running this project called Re-Hab in seven states of the country, namely in Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Assam and Orissa, where attacks of the elephants is more common. “Under this project fencing of bee boxes is installed in such areas from where elephants move towards the human settlements and farmers’ agriculture,” added Kumar.
Fencing of bee-boxes on the routes of movement of elephants blocks the path of wild elephants. In this way, through honey-bees, elephants can be prevented from attacking humans and destroying farmers’ crops.
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As a new initiative, the Re-Hab project will be run by KVIC at selected locations for a period of one year.
The chairman also informed that in order to realize the call of ‘sweet revolution’ by the government and to provide self-employment opportunities to the unemployed youth of the country. This initiative will help farmers to increase their income under the honey mission programme, being executed under the Khadi and Gramodyog Vikas Yojana, in the entire country from the year 2018-19.
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The beneficiaries of this scheme are provided with 10 bee-boxes, bee-colonies and toolkits after completion of the beekeeping training provided by KVIC.
Under the honey mission programme in Uttarakhand, from the year 2018-19 to 2021-22, a total of 7120 bee-boxes, bee-colonies and toolkits, and other equipment have been distributed to a total of 712 unemployed and farmers, out of which 3910 bee-boxes have been distributed to 391 scheduled caste beneficiaries, 790 bee-boxes to 79 scheduled tribe beneficiaries, and 2420 bee-boxes to 242 general category beneficiaries.
