Why in news?  Chairman of KVIC distributed live Bee Colonies, Bee-keeping equipment and Bee-Boxes to the trained beneficiaries at Sulia at Dakshina Kannada

Highlights

• It was distributed under RE-HAB project, an initiative under the Honey Mission Programme
• Under project “Bee-fences” are created by setting up bee boxes in the passage ways of elephants to block their entrance to human habitats.
• It is a cost-effective way of reducing human-wild conflicts without causing any harm to the animal.
• Taking an initiative, KVIC initiated a pilot project with the Technical assistance of the College of Forestry, Ponnampet, Kodagu District and the results were encouraging.

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

• It is a sub-mission under KVIC’s National Honey Mission.
• Intiative was launched by Khadi and Village Industries Commission
• The pilot project was launched at four locations around village Chelur in Kodagu district of Karnataka and on the periphery of Nagarhole National Park prone to human-elephant conflicts.
• Scheme will provide awareness and training in using bee boxes along the bee colonies

About KVIC

• It is a statutory body, under ‘Khadi and Village Industries Commission Act of 1956’.
• Organisation is under the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
• It took over the work of former All India Khadi and Village Industries Board.
• It seeks to “plan, promote, facilitate, organise and assist in the establishment and development of khadi and village industries in the rural areas in coordination with other agencies engaged in rural development wherever necessary