Kolkata: The belligerent bees that had forced a flight to turn back from the runway were actually transiting the airport and had chosen the Air India plane for a pit stop, say entomologists. While there are no flowering plants at the airport for the honeybees to refuel, the intoxicating vapours from aviation turbine fuel (ATF) may just have lured them to home in on the airport, say others.
“It appears that a queen bee and the colony of worker bees were moving base in search of a new hive and had stopped at Kolkata airport to rest. Since there are no trees in the vast grounds of the airport, the plane acted as a perching spot,” said Prabir Garain, honeybee researcher and protection specialist at Nimpith Krishi Vigyan Kendra.
Entomologist, Bulganin Mitra, said overcrowding could have prompted a queen bee residing with others in a large colony to move out with a breakaway group. “The group was probably travelling in search of a perfect spot to form a hive. During the search, they appear to have stopped at Kolkata airport to rest,” said Mitra who retired as senior scientist from Zoological Survey of India (ZSI).
Honeybees have different migrating patters. Wild bees (Apis dorsata) travel towards the Sunderbans when mangroves flower between March and June. Thereafter, they migrate towards villages where there are agricultural crops. The migration is in smaller numbers. In contrast, the other species of Indian bees (Apis cerana indica) found naturally shift base in large numbers. Earlier commercially managed for honey production, honey farmers have now shifted to Italian honeybees (Apis mellifera) that are more productive than the Indian variety. From the description provided by pilots who were in the cockpit of the Airbus A319 aircraft, on which the bees converged, entomologists said they were Indian honeybees. The bees that swarmed the plane were average sized and found hovering in gardens or shops selling sweets, an Air India ground staff told TOI. Garain deduced that the hive, from which the bees were migrating, were within 1.5km of the airport as the Indian honeybees usually don't travel long distances.
17/09/19 Subhro Niyogi/Times of India
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“It appears that a queen bee and the colony of worker bees were moving base in search of a new hive and had stopped at Kolkata airport to rest. Since there are no trees in the vast grounds of the airport, the plane acted as a perching spot,” said Prabir Garain, honeybee researcher and protection specialist at Nimpith Krishi Vigyan Kendra.
Entomologist, Bulganin Mitra, said overcrowding could have prompted a queen bee residing with others in a large colony to move out with a breakaway group. “The group was probably travelling in search of a perfect spot to form a hive. During the search, they appear to have stopped at Kolkata airport to rest,” said Mitra who retired as senior scientist from Zoological Survey of India (ZSI).
Honeybees have different migrating patters. Wild bees (Apis dorsata) travel towards the Sunderbans when mangroves flower between March and June. Thereafter, they migrate towards villages where there are agricultural crops. The migration is in smaller numbers. In contrast, the other species of Indian bees (Apis cerana indica) found naturally shift base in large numbers. Earlier commercially managed for honey production, honey farmers have now shifted to Italian honeybees (Apis mellifera) that are more productive than the Indian variety. From the description provided by pilots who were in the cockpit of the Airbus A319 aircraft, on which the bees converged, entomologists said they were Indian honeybees. The bees that swarmed the plane were average sized and found hovering in gardens or shops selling sweets, an Air India ground staff told TOI. Garain deduced that the hive, from which the bees were migrating, were within 1.5km of the airport as the Indian honeybees usually don't travel long distances.
17/09/19 Subhro Niyogi/Times of India
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