The Bee and the Tiger
Our life depends on two insects. Without them the earth would start dying…
All over the world, bees are dying and the earth is plunging towards another serious crisis.
For millions of years wild insects have kept the earth green and alive.
Today silently, and unknown to most of us, they are disappearing. Their extinction could wipe out all life on earth within a few years. The threat to our planet earth is real and amongst the most dangerous.
If the bees and butterflies, the flagship species disappear we all will die and life will cease to exist on the planet.
We all know that life on Earth is possible only because of vital elements – air, water and food (energy).
While air and water come to us directly, the energy that keeps us going and makes life possible and sustainable comes to us through the food we eat.
But for bees, butterflies and wild insects, we would not have any food. They pollinate our fields of rice, wheat, corn, our vegetable patches, fruit trees, and fodder for our livestock. Water comes to us from our forests and the Tiger is the natural protector of these jungles from where water and rivers flow.
Not many of us may be aware but our life is dependent on two creatures and some insects. Unknown to most of us these tiny creatures pollinate over 87% of the major food crops and fruits of the world. This amounts to a staggering 3 trillion dollars every year in agricultural produce worldwide.
One Lac Bees can pollinate up to a million flowers and cover up a 400 square kilometre area in just one day.
But tragically, Millions of bees have died over the last few years according to reports in different parts of the world.
Beekeepers are shocked at the mysterious and sudden disappearance of millions of bees. Thousands of hives have become empty. The adults leave the hives and do not return. Bees are dying from mysterious causes.
In Croatia a beekeeper reported over 5 million dead bees in a week.
Crop production is falling all over the world.
Crop failure and drop in production is affecting many countries. Many farmers of bee dependent crops like almonds grown in California’s central valley are suffering huge losses. Bees are being imported from Europe. Nearly 2 millions hives were imported just to pollinate the 8,00,000 acres of almond crops in the U.S.A. This is the total amount of bees available in the USA. Desperate farmers are ready to pay up to $200 for a hive, each containing 50 thousand bees and this is just the beginning.
Scientists have come up with some answers. The diminishing population has been put down to the Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in which huge colonies of bees die within weeks. The hives become empty and only the queen and a few males remain.
Experts are struggling to find an answer to the catastrophic crash... Some entomologists have pointed to a wide range of potential explanations for CCD – heavy pesticide use, Virus, genetically modified crops, mono crops, high temperatures, mites or even radiation from mobile phones.
Laboratory tests show presence of virus infestations and bacteria.
Some bees had five or six infections at the same time and were infested with fungi – experts fear that the insects' immune system may have collapsed.
Asia is not isolated from this crisis. Although no figures are available, India and China are also suffering.
Grain production is falling and crops have been affected.
India’s northern state of Punjab is a classical example. Crop production has fallen not only due to climate change and shortage of irrigation water as some may like to believe, but also largely due to lack of the crop pollinators.
Punjab is one of the highest consumers of pesticides in India.
Similarly Apple crops in Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir have suffered. Production has fallen drastically in Himachal Pradesh. The apple crop is regularly drenched with pesticides, 4 to 5 times, till the apples mature. This kills millions of bees and pollinators.
According to Shri Vinay Tandon, Chief Wildlife warden of Himachal Pradesh, “‘the fruit crops are bee dependent, the drop in apple and plum production is a direct result of the excessive use of pesticides during the pre flowering, flowering and post flowering season and twice after the apples are maturing.
This kills the chief pollinators and many insects in huge numbers. The bees are disappearing.”
A report from China tells us that millions of bees have died in the Sichuan Province. In absence of bees, labourers and farmers have turned into pollinators. Thousands of pear trees are in full bloom. The branches are weighed down under the weight of the flowers. But its not the flowers that catch your eye. Thousands of labourers climb the trees with small sticks with feathers at one end, to brush and pollinate each flower physically.
An international agency recently published a report on this.
For the first time the evidence is there for all to see…All the honey bees in this part of the province are dead and the farmers are trying to replace the bees.
The largest crash is visible in the central valley USA and China followed by Mexico, France, Belgium, Portugal, Sweden, Croatia, Spain and the Middle East, where nearly 40% of the hives have disappeared. The situation is grim. According to surveys, over the past two decades, there has been an alarming 30% decline in bee population all over the world.
In Great Britain too, farmers are worried. Huge colonies of bees are dying. Crops dependent on pollination by bees are in grave risk of disappearing. Scientists in Britain are concerned if they lose the bees, crops like apples, pears, canola, lettuce and broccoli will disappear from England.
In Greece experts are very concerned and are monitoring the situation closely. Greece, has one of the world's biggest bee settlements, and produces over 14,000 tonnes of honey for export to Europe every year.
In the 1990’s millions of bees died in France. A substance used in pesticides called ‘Imidacloprid’ was discovered to be the cause. Despite an immediate ban, more than a decade later, the bees have still not recovered.
Tragically, Commercial farmers and agro scientists have once again taken the cycle of life lightly and have been dabbling with Nature for profit. In both cases we are playing with fire and could well lead all life on Earth, including the human race, to the brink of Famine and ultimately mass extinction.
The U.S.A. and European countries are spending millions on research. It might be too late…for too long we have taken nature for granted. For too long we have abused the life support systems of our planet with little respect for Nature.
If the human race is to survive, then we need the bees…our lives are in their hands…we too are bee-dependent!
Ignorance and Human greed are once again responsible for a far more devastating threat to our race than any virus.
SARS, Mad Cow Disease, AIDS, climate change, H1 N1 all pale into insignificance. We all need food and water…the environment, in order to survive.
It is ironic that though one of our chief concerns today is Food Security, yet our actions are cutting at the very roots of it.
Greed for more, no respect for nature’s designs or cycle of life is hurtling us towards our own extinction.
We fail to understand that every creature created by nature …every species on earth has a crucial role to play. Each has its role and function. We eradicate them at a grave risk to ourselves, and to the future of the planet, we call home.
If the honeybees die, life on Earth will be seriously threatened and will be wiped out in a matter of years.
The tiger, apex of the food chain will disappear in one year…man will cease to exist on earth in 3 years.
The earth will become barren and all life will cease to exist on the planet within 5 years.
The future is in your hands!
~ Mike Pandey
