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Context: KVIC Rolls Out Project RE-HAB in Assam to Prevent Elephant – Human Conflicts Using Tiny Bees.

About Project RE-HAB (Reducing Elephant-Human Attacks using Bees):

• Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has launched Project RE-HAB for areas which severely grapples with elephant-human conflicts.
• The project has been implemented in Assam with the support of the local forest department.
• Under Project RE-HAB, “Bee-fences” are created by setting up bee boxes in the passage ways of elephants to block their entrance to human territories.
• The boxes are connected with a string so that when elephants attempt to pass through, a tug or pull causes the bees to swarm the elephant herds and dissuade them from progressing further.
• It is a cost-effective way of reducing human-wild conflicts without causing any harm to the animals.
• It is scientifically recorded that elephants are annoyed by the honey bees.
• Elephants also fear that the bee swarms can bite their sensitive inner side of the trunk and eyes. The collective buzz of the bees is annoying to elephants that force them to return.
• Project RE-HAB would prove to be a sustainable solution to the human-elephant conflicts that are very common in Assam.
• Project RE-HAB is a sub-mission of KVIC’s National Honey Mission. While the Honey Mission is a programme to increase the bee population, honey production and beekeepers’ income by setting up apiaries, Project RE-HAB uses bee boxes as a fence to prevent the elephant attacks.
• In just 6 months, this project has reduced elephant attacks by over 70%.

Need:

• Crop-raiding by elephants in these villages are reported almost every day for 9 to 10 months a year.
• The elephant menace here is so severe that villagers, over the last few years, had stopped cultivating their farms fearing elephant attacks.
• Nearly 500 people die every year due to elephant attacks in India. This is nearly 10 times more than the fatalities caused by big cats across the country. From 2015 to 2020, nearly 2500 people have lost their lives in elephant attacks.
• On the contrary, nearly one-fifth of this number, i.e. nearly 500 elephants have also died in retaliation by humans in the last 5 years.

https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1777981

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