When Bees help Humans and Elephants survive in Kenya

Kenyan elephants are not restricted to wildlife sanctuaries or reserves, hence continuous harm by them to the locals and their lands and farms is common In African regions. Being one of the biggest animals they see humans as their biggest threat, hence farmers won't see a way to sustain them from entering and damaging their crops and farms.

Discovering lethal and well accepted ways to prevent the over exploitation by the Elephants in the African areas is one of the biggest challenges elephant and wildlife managers seek across African region. Even tons of elephants are killed every year for their ivory tusks, farmers continue to fight for their survival with them and poaching is devastating the survival of animals in Africa.

Dr Lucky king the winner UNEP/CMS Thesis Award and head of HEC (Human elephant coexistence) program managed to prove an experiment that would render elephant helpless when they hear bee's buzzing sound or come across beehives on their way to the fields, thus forcing them to change their direction and force them to return. She laid down the research in Kenya Sabo East national park with 22 farmers under which a beehive fence is made with hives at a distance of 10mts with 10-21 hives a single fence and are made cheaply with the cost of 150$-500$ per 100m of fence and equipped with locally available material. Dr King and her team members discovered that the project success rate is well above 85% and it helped farmers boost their income by up to 30% as the honey is well demanded in international market.

The strategy also helped the farmers by improving their daily life with less elephant conflicts moreover increase in their income from 300$ a year by upto 30%.

Lucy King won The St Andrews Prize for the Environment for the extraordinary and unique research and quoted saying "I am delighted with this win. The recognition and financial support will enable us to expand our vital research work and protect many more rural farming families from elephant invasions."

-by Shivang Goel. He is an intern at NewsGram. Twitter:@Shivang997