Marking World Honey Bee Day on Saturday, Rashtrapati Bhavan and the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) announced their own sweet plans to produce honey.
President Ram Nath Kovind visited the apiary set up at the President’s Estate with the aid of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) to promote the Honey Mission on Saturday, according to a statement from Rashtrapati Bhavan. Currently, 200 bee boxes have been installed to produce high-quality honey, wax and pollen, said the statement.
The number of boxes will be increased to 500, in a bid to not only produce honey but also boost flora and fauna since the bees will help in pollination.
Honey distributed
The NDMC also launched its own Honey Mission on Saturday, with NDMC member and New Delhi MP Meenakshi Lekhi distributing 15gm packs of honey to about 1,000 NDMC school students at an event near Gole Market.
According to an NDMC statement, Ms. Lekhi highlighted the importance of honey, for its medicinal use in Ayurveda as well as a source of income for farmers and others.
The chairperson of KVIC, Vinay Kumar Saxena, said the commission would produce 15 lakh tonnes of honey this year and that honey would be distributed to 10,000 school students to promote it.
Hub of production
With Lutyens’ Delhi being among the greenest parts of the Capital, NDMC chairperson Naresh Kumar said that it would ideal for promoting honey production. H
e added that bee boxes would be set up in all NDMC parks and nurseries with the help of KVIC.
