Writers and literature lovers visiting this hilly town are clamouring for honey, and staying away from its liquor stores and bars.

Bee-rearing is popular in and around Madikeri, and stalls selling honey are doing brisk business during the 80th all-India Kannada Sahitya Sammelana. The three-day gala ends on Thursday.

About 20 shops in the vicinity of the literary carnival trade in honey. On a normal day, they sell 30 to 50 kilos. Over the past two days, sales have doubled.

Ashok, Secretary of the Coorg Progressive Beekeepers Co-operative Society, said, “Each shop has asked for 500 boxes. Each box holds 12 one-kg bottles.”

Despite the demand, vendors have not hiked their prices. “A kilo of pure honey in a sealed bottle costs `220. The price is `180 otherwise,” Ashok said.

Honey production peaks between March and June. “This is actually off season. We are struggling to meet the demand,” he said.

There are 1,100 bee-keepers in and around Madikeri, and 6,000 in Kodagu district.

Chandappa, head master of a government school in Bijapur district and a conference delegate, said, “We don’t get honey in our districts. That’s why we are taking home some.”

The visiting writers and literature buffs aren’t giving good business to liquor shops, though.

Thimmappa of National Wines on the Madikeri main road feels the guests are not the drinking type.

“On normal days, we sell seven to eight boxes of whiskey, with each box containing 12 bottles. Since Monday, the number has come down to four or five,” he said.

Traffic diversions for the literary carnival have also had a negative impact on the liquor business, he said.

Madappa, another liquor shop owner, said visitors from North Karnataka don’t drink.

“A small number come for wine and ask about the percentage of alcohol in it,” he said.

The weather is not helping the liquor business either. “It has become warm over the past week, and that is one of the reasons our customers have just one or two pegs of whiskey,” said Madappa.

The temperature in Madikeri on Wednesday afternoon (4pm) was 26 degree Celsius, not warm at all by the standards of northern Karnataka districts, where temperatures touch 40 degrees. Madikeri has about 30 liquor stores and bars.

Pure for sure?

Rajashree, owner of a honey shop in Madikeri, offered tips on how to test the purity of honey. “Take a cup of water and put a drop of honey in it. If the honey is pure, it goes to the bottom, but if it is adulterated, it spreads,” she said. The second trick is to use paper. “Dip a piece of paper in the bottle. If the honey is pure, the paper will not get wet,” she said.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Karnataka / by Rashmi Belur and Ashwini M. Sripad – Madikeri / January 09th, 2014

Growers in Kodagu, faced with pest attacks on coffee and diseases in cardamom, orange, and banana crops, had something to look forward to during the Litchi Field Day organised by the Central Horticultural Experiment Station (CHES) at Chettalli in the district recently.

About 50 progressive growers attended the event. A field visit to litchi orchards of the CHES in Chettalli gave the growers exposure to cultivation methods. CHES scientists apprised the growers about the soil requirements, fruiting, flowering pattern, and yield of litchi.

P.C. Tripathi, head of the CHES, made a presentation on the prospects of litchi cultivation in Kodagu. He said litchi matures in the off-season, during November-December period, in Kodagu, unlike in traditional cultivation areas in north India where it matures during May and June. As this was the off-season, the fruits were in demand in the market. He told The Hindu that litchi grown in Kodagu during the off-season could be marketed across the country.

The current price of litchi is around Rs. 150 a kg. Litchi cultivation had picked up in Kodagu in the last four years, he said. A grower had planted 900 plants in Chettalli area, he said.

Income from litchi cultivation could augment the annual income of growers who were left to fend for themselves due to the volatility of coffee and pepper prices, Dr. Tripathi said. A small litchi tree could yield between 30 to 50 kg of fruits while bigger ones could yield more than 2 quintals, he said. India is ranked second in the world in litchi production, after China. In India, litchi is grown on nearly 75,000 hectares with a yield of 4.83 lakh tonnes. Bihar, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand are the major litchi growing States in the country. At the programme, growers raised queries on profitability and feasibility of litchi cultivation.

Planters including N. Bose Mandanna, Col. Kumar (retd.), B.D. Manjunath, Vijay Devaiah and Shambhu Chengappa participated in the programme. Scientists of the CHES, Indian Institute of Spices Research, Appangala, near Madikeri; Coffee Board, Chettalli; and Krishi Vijnana Kendra, Gonicoppa, as well as government officials were present.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National> Karnataka / by K. Jeevan Chinnappa / Madikeri – December 26th, 2013

An apiculture park will be set up at Bhagamandala in Kodagu district to revive apiculture in Karnataka, Horticulture Minister Shamanur Shivashankarappa said on Thursday.

He told reporters here that the park would come up on six acres at Bhagamandala. The department would distribute 20,000 boxes to Jenu Kurubas, a tribe that has expertise in honey cultivation and extraction.

According to him, Rs. 60 lakh had been earmarked in the current fiscal to promote apiculture. “At present, the honey production is around 800 metric tonnes but it is possible to increase it to 8,000 metric tonnes per annum. Besides awareness, training would be imparted to the local tribe to promote apiculture. There is a lot of scope for promoting apiculture in Uttara Kannada, Dakshina Kannada and other Malnad districts,” he said.

Neera Policy

The minister said the department has submitted a proposal to the Finance Department to announce a policy on neera.

“An amendment to the State Excise Act is necessary to allow the tapping and selling of neera in the state. Already, steps have been taken to promote value-added products from the neera like palm syrup, palm jaggery and palm sugar. Now it is up to the Finance Department to table a bill in the State Legislature to pass the Neera Policy,” he said.

Proposal Submitted

He said the state government has submitted a proposal to the Union government seeking release of Rs. 100 crore to revive coconut plantations in several districts.

“Thirty per cent of the coconut plants have perished due to pests and failure of monsoon. The department is educating the farmers of rain-fed areas to go for alternative crops,” he said. According to him, the department has given Rs. 12,000 per acre to farmers for loss of coconut plants.

Auction Centres

Shamanur said two flower auction centres set up in Tumkur and Davangere would be inaugurated soon. The Department of Horticulture has provided the infrastructure but it would be managed by the Karnataka Agricultural Marketing Department.

“Floriculture is no longer a profitable venture following competitions from the African countries. In recent years, Kenya and Ethiopia have emerged as leading flower export countries after the European countries. Despite this, many flowers are being exported from Karnataka thanks to the department’s support. Fifty per cent subsidy is being given to entrepreneurs under the National Horticulture Mission to promote floriculture,” he said.

Census

He said the census of horticulture crops’ areas under cultivation and production were in progress in Bagalkot, Belgaum, Bellary, Chitradurga, Davangere, Gulbarga, Hassan, Kolar, Mysore, Shimoga and Tumkur districts. According to him, Rs. 5 crore had been earmarked for the purpose. “Nearly 50 per cent of the work has been completed,” he said.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Karnataka / by Express News Service – Bangalore / November 22nd, 2013

At least 25 wild elephants are set to be caught in Alur taluk of Hassan district

With a green signal from the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday, the Department of Forests now sets about planning its biggest ever operation to capture wild elephants since the State’s last ‘khedda’ in 1971, when 47 animals were captured.

At the very least, this would mean the capture and taming of around 25 elephants in Hassan’s Alur taluk, the epicentre of human-elephant conflict in the State. The Karnataka Elephant Task Force in its report to the High Court in September 2012, identified two regions — Alur and Tumkur district’s Savandurga — as “elephant removal zones” for the “unacceptable levels” of conflict they encountered.

The department, however, places “the outer limit” for the number of elephants to be captured at 150 and hope to extend the ‘removal zone’ to parts of Kodagu where human-elephant conflict is intense. “The actual number we capture will be much less, but we’ll have to take a call on areas such as Kodagu based on an assessment of conflict levels and perceptions of people here,” said Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) G.S. Prabhu.

‘Extreme measure’

Members of the task force don’t quite agree. Removing wild elephants from a natural landscape is “an extreme measure” and one that should be done with the “greatest judiciousness”, said M.D. Madhusudan, scientist with the Nature Conservation Foundation and task force member. Only two areas have been identified by the task force as potential “removal zones” and Kodagu is not one of them, he said.

Alur was an anomaly of sorts and justifies the approach, he explained. The conflict in Alur was intense, and the elephant population was ecologically unviable. “Here, a herd of 25–30 elephants inhabit a tiny 5-sq. km forest patch circumscribed by agricultural fields that they routinely raid.” Between 1986 and 2011, elephants killed 46 people and injured over 240, according to the task force report, creating a “fear psychosis among people that hampers their ability to work and live normal lives.”

The situation in Kodagu was not adequately studied yet, said Raman Sukumar, chairman of the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science. “We first need to assess the conflict situation in Kodagu, understand the dynamic of elephants here (are they transitory, for instance) before we decide on a course of action.”

Meanwhile, the Department of Forests has set aside Rs. 4 crore to create kraals to restrain elephants captured, which typically take a year to tame, and new elephant camps. “The project can only begin in January, after the rain,” Mr. Prabhu said, and added that the department would be using a combination of methods that incorporate elements from traditional ‘khedda’ (stockade traps) and also modern-day chemical tranquilising.

BACK TO THE WILD

Even as it prepares for a large-scale capture of elephants, the department, ironically, admits that its 10 camps, which together have 91 elephants, are too crowded.

“We are looking at the possibility of returning around 30 of these back to the wild,” Mr. Prabhu said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National> Karnataka / by Divya Gandhi / Bangalore – October 13th, 2013