The wild honey processing centre of the Honey Eco Development Committee (HEDC) at Ponkuzhy under the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS) has provided fresh hopes to tribespersons living in various settlements inside the sanctuary.
“The tribesmen were facing exploitation from middlemen when we launched the HEDC the previous year,” P. Dhaneshkumar, Wildlife Warden in-charge, told The Hindu .
Technical help
The processing centre of the HEDC was set up at a cost of Rs.4 lakh to process wild honey with the technical support of the ‘Keystone Foundation’ at Kothagiri in Tamil Nadu, he said.
The HEDC wants to ensure sustainable income to tribesmen engaged in collecting non-timber forest produce from the sanctuary, avoid exploitation by middlemen, and provide scientific training to tribesmen in collecting honey without damaging honeycombs and by conserving honeybees, he added.
Identity cards
“We disbursed identity cards to 260 tribal members of the HEDC to collect non-timber produce from inside the sanctuary and 160 members among them were trained to collect honey scientifically,” Shahul Hameed, secretary of the HEDC, said.
The middlemen gave us Rs.160 to Rs.180 for a kg of honey last year.
But, when the HEDC started to procure honey at Rs.200 a kg, the middlemen too raised the price, Kalan, a tribesman said.
Price
The HEDC pays the tribespeople Rs.220 a kg for honey this season and sells it at Rs.500 a kg after processing the produce.
We are selling processed wild honey under the brand name ‘Wild gold’ through eco shops at Muthanga and Tholpetty, he said.
The profit would be disbursed to the tribesmen as incentive, he added.
The HEDC aims at collecting 8,500 kg of wild honey this season as against 3,700 kg the previous year. This would ensure better returns for the tribespeople. There would be no harm to the ecology, he said.
