MIND YOUR BEES’NESS
My objective- BEEHIVE KEEPING will protect, restore and promote the life of honey bees.
-The aim of my project is to increase the Bee population in the tourist attraction centres in Ootacamund.
Living in Ootacamund, in a school full of trees and flowering plants, bees
make up a significant amount of the population.
-As a student I take biology, and learning about ecosystems, I’ve always
wondered why bees were part of our school community.
-That’s when my biology teacher told us about how important they are for the
agrarian community; which directly affects us.
-It’s fascinating how such tiny creatures have a direct impact on the whole
world, yet there are so many of us who still think all they do is produce
honey.
-Upon realizing this, I decided to do my best to nurture and care for
them, as efficiently as possible
-I will design hives in the school Tech Lab.
-Fix them strategically around Ooty town, in the often visited locations- the municipal market, botanical gardens and Vegetable market “Uluvara Sandhai”, the rose garden, and in Doddabetta viewpoint.
-I will place posters around these, advocating the impacts and importance of bees, their lifestyles, and ways we can conserve them.
-This project is specially tailored to Ooty because there is a large farming community in Ooty as well as a large influx of tourists, who visit during the spring, the time bees are most active therefore I know the messages displayed will reach many people who can actually implement them to make a real change.
My team has 3 members, all in high school. Our Bio teacher is supporting us prepare the hives. Our team has volunteered before in a few projects within and outside school. We are motivated and focused in this project.
An organization named, Keystone Foundation, Kotagiri, is doing a similar project, in a hill town, near Ooty.
We visited them for learning the techniques.
- Taking action to combat climate change and its impacts (Sustainability)
- Concept: An idea being explored for its feasibility to build a product, service, or business model based on that idea.
Sustainable Goal 15
Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.
Mind Your Bees will protect, restore and promote the life of honey bees.
The project will be done for a year, which includes designing the hives and fixing them in the tourist visiting places in Ooty.
A simple Artificial Technology will be used to connect all the Beehives.
- Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning
FUTURE VISION
-After
fixing the hives in the strategic locations in Ooty, I hope to be able to aid
farm owners or anyone, who wants to purchase a beehive, I will connect them to
a supplier, financially aid them if necessary and teach them basic apiculture.
-People who buy hives will grow their passion for bees and spread it to more
people.
-I also hope in the future to be able to spread these community hives to
different districts and cities.
Time constraints, due to busy regular school hours.
Initial basic designing of hives is a challenge.
We are planning to receive suggestions and support from a private organization, that does a similar project.
The key customers are the local community in Ooty.
-The funding will be used to buy and maintain the bees, a hive of female bees costs approximately 2500/- INR, and I will be able to build hive boxes myself using my school’s tech lab.
-Depending on the funding received I can buy bees to start. –I may extract honey and wax, which I can package and sell commercially.
-This income will initially supplement the costs of maintenance.
-Obviously, this won't become a commercial enterprise but I must insist on a self-sufficient project because to me that's the only sustainable option.
-All social media creation will be done by me and require no financial assistance..