Why BSF put beehives on fence along Indo-Bangladesh border

Official sources told PTI that the decision was made during a meeting on “scientific beekeeping and honey mission” that was chaired by Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla at his office at North Block here in April. The goal of the initiative is to increase employment opportunities for the locals and foster goodwill with them for strengthening security.

The directive was given to all central paramilitary and allied forces to replicate a “beehives on border fence” beekeeping model started by a BSF unit in West Bengal.

The model developed and executed by the 32nd BSF battalion, which is stationed in West Bengal’s Nadia district to guard the India-Bangladesh international border, was ’lauded’ during the meeting, according to a senior CAPF officer, and all central armed police forces (CAPFs) were instructed to implement it in their respective areas of responsibility.

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The National Security Guard (NSG), the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the Assam Rifles, and other border guarding forces, like the Sashastra Seema Bal (borders between Nepal and Bhutan) and the Indo Tibetan Border Police (China LAC), CAPFs like the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), do not have fences to guard, but the model can be utilised by them as per their nature of duties, the officer said.

With a combined size of over 12 lakh, these troops are used for a range of internal security missions, such as policing India’s borders with other countries, fighting terrorism, and quelling insurgencies.

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According to a senior BSF officer, the goal of implementing the BSF West Bengal beekeeping model is to create jobs in isolated places, win over the trust and friendship of the people, who serve as the “eyes and ears” in these areas from a security perspective.

The BSF unit in Nadia was established in November of last year and has since installed nearly 200 beehives on the India-Bangaldesh alloy-made border fence. Its multiple objectives include preventing border crimes such as the smuggling of cattle, gold, and drugs, as well as fence cutting and providing employment opportunities for the local populace.

Commandant Sujeet Kumar, the commanding officer (CO) of this BSF battalion, earlier spoke to PTI and explained that the initiative was launched after it was analysed that trans-border crimes were directly linked to scanty livelihood opportunities in the region leading to allurement of locals into criminal activities.

The ‘beehives on fence’ initiative is aimed to engage the locals in producing honey for sale, planting flowering and fruit-bearing plants for the honeybees and also for the purpose of trade and shallow water pisciculture through the fresh ditches being made in this border area to store water, he had said.

The BSF has engaged the Ayush ministry for procuring herbal and aromatic plants to run this initiative, which has also become part of the Union government’s vibrant village programme (VVP) that aims to engage local border population in productive programmes thereby stopping migration from the frontier areas that have strategic and vital importance vis-a-vis internal security.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has been running the ‘scientific beekeeping and honey mission’ for sometime but it has now been desired that the BSF West Bengal model should be adopted to boost this ongoing programme for achieving enhanced results for the locals and the forces concerned, the CAPF officer quoted above said.

More than 1 lakh saplings have been planted with the engagement of BSF personnel, Ayush ministry and hundreds of local people in the border area of Nadia since the ‘beehives on border fence’ model was launched late last year, he said.