Pollination isn’t something most of us think about — it just feels like one of those background things that happen on their own. But for farmers, especially in India, it’s becoming something they have to actively manage. And that shift says a lot about how we’ve come to depend less on nature and more on human fixes.

In a lot of places now, bees and other natural pollinators aren’t showing up the way they used to. So, farmers are renting them. Yes, actual bee colonies. Beekeepers move domesticated honeybees across states depending on which crops are flowering, and farmers pay to have them on-site for a few weeks in the hope that the bees will do their job and leave them with a decent harvest.

No Bees, No Apples!

Take Himachal Pradesh — apple orchards there have started depending heavily on these rented bees. One colony can cost over ₹1,000 for just a few weeks. And big farms might need a hundred or more. That adds up really quickly, but farmers can’t afford not to pay. No bees, no apples.

Doing it by Hand!

In states like Karnataka and Kerala, things have gotten even trickier. Sometimes, even the rented bees don’t cut it. So farmers are doing it by hand — using cotton buds and tiny brushes to move pollen from one flower to another. Crops like vanilla and coffee need to be pollinated during very specific time windows, so the work is not just tiring, it’s also stressful. But again, there’s not really a choice.

What’s wild is how routine all of this has become. Beekeepers follow crop seasons — chillies in Telangana, mustard in Rajasthan, coriander in Gujarat. Pollination used to be something nature just handled. Now it’s scheduled, planned, and paid for.

And underneath all of this is a bigger concern. India has a huge number of managed honeybee colonies, but our wild pollinators — the native bees, butterflies, and insects — are vanishing. Things like pesticide use, deforestation, monoculture farming, and climate change are making it hard for them to survive. And in places like the Western Ghats or the Himalayas — places where you’d expect rich biodiversity — the absence of these species is starting to show.

Small fixes

There are small fixes being tried out. Some scientists are experimenting with bumblebees, which are apparently better for greenhouse crops. Some local groups are trying to bring back native flowering plants to attract pollinators again. But honestly, these efforts are still small and scattered.

The bigger picture is kind of worrying. We’re slowly creating a system where humans have to replace what nature used to do on its own — and that takes more time, more money, and way more effort. Renting bees or hand-pollinating might work for now, but it’s not exactly sustainable.

And maybe that’s the part we don’t talk about enough — that we’re getting used to all of this. To renting bees. To doing what insects used to. To acting like this is normal. But it’s not. And if we keep accepting these changes without questioning them, we’re going to find ourselves in a system that’s way more fragile than we think.

NEWSNET INTERN AMAN JHA STUDIES JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION AT ST. XAVIER’S COLLEGE OF MANAGEMENT AND TECHNOLOGY IN PATNA, BIHAR. THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THIS ARTICLE ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR AND NOT NECESSARILY THOSE OF THE NEWSNET EDITOR AND STAFF.

  bees, conservation, development, environment, naked truth, nature