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Entry 785Filed under Breeding

Why Are India’s Bees Disappearing? What the Evidence Shows

A 2017 Odisha study recorded farmers’ reports of fewer bees, while later regional research suggests possible pressures from intensive agriculture. The evidence does not yet establish a nationwide decline rate or a single cause.
4-minute read By Animalso Team
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There is no reliable nationwide figure showing how quickly India’s bee populations are changing. A 2017 study documented farmers’ reports of fewer bees visiting fields in parts of Odisha, including reported declines of up to 80% for some bee populations. That is a local observation—not a census of all bees in India. Later regional studies point to pressures including intensive agriculture and pesticides, but no single cause has been established across the country.

What the 2017 Odisha study found

The headline refers to a study published in Biological Conservation that recorded and assessed local knowledge about pollinators in Odisha. In a 2017 report, Scroll described farmers’ observations that fewer bees had been visiting fields since around 2002. Farmers could identify different kinds of bees and describe changes in their numbers. The report said some populations had declined by up to 80%.

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That figure is a farmer-reported estimate for some bee populations in the study area. It should not be read as an 80% decline in every bee species, across Odisha, or across India. Local knowledge can reveal changes that formal monitoring has missed, especially where long-running population counts are scarce, but recalled observations are not interchangeable with standardized counts over time.

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What other regional studies add

Wild bees around Bangalore

A 2022 study sampled wild bees and surveyed farm management on 127 agricultural plots around Bangalore. In those study landscapes, agricultural intensification was associated with lower bee abundance and richness. The authors also reported statistically significant negative spillover associations with pesticide use; chemical fertilizer and irrigation on a plot were associated with lower bee abundance. These findings make intensive farming and pesticide exposure credible concerns, but the study does not establish a nationwide cause or prove that every observed association applies elsewhere.

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Wild rock bees in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve

A 2024 study brought together scientific observations and Indigenous knowledge about Apis dorsata, or giant honey bees, in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. Social surveys indicated that wild colony populations had declined over the preceding 10–20 years. The authors did not directly compare nest densities across regions and seasons, so the result is a regional warning rather than a standardized national trend.

Which pressures may be contributing?

The available findings fit a picture of interacting risks, not one proven explanation for all of India’s bees.

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  • Pesticides and intensive agriculture: The Odisha report raised concerns about pesticide exposure and intensive farming, while the Bangalore-area study found associations between farm-management pressures and lower wild-bee abundance or richness in its sampled landscapes. The strength and scope of that evidence are specific to those places and methods.
  • Habitat and forage change: A 2023 India conservation brief identifies habitat and agricultural practices as conservation priorities. It recommends retaining native vegetation and improving food and nesting resources around farmland. These recommendations reflect conservation concerns, not a measured share of national bee decline caused by habitat loss.
  • Managed non-indigenous bees: The 2017 Scroll report quoted concerns that promoting the non-indigenous honey bee Apis mellifera could affect native bee diversity. This remains an attributed concern, not a demonstrated nationwide cause. Competition from managed bees is among the factors the 2023 conservation brief says is insufficiently studied in India.
  • Air pollution: A 2020 field study in Bangalore reported correlations between particulate deposition on giant Asian honey bees and changes in survival, flower visitation, and physiological measures. It provides a distinct line of evidence about urban pollution, not an explanation for the Odisha observations or a national population estimate.
  • Other poorly studied stressors: The 2023 conservation brief identifies invasive species, pathogens, pollution, and competition from managed bees as pressures with global impacts that remain insufficiently studied in India. It also calls for more research into chronic and sub-lethal pesticide effects.

Why a national decline rate is not yet clear

The studies measure different things: farmer-recalled field visits in Odisha, sampled bee abundance and richness around Bangalore, and survey-reported wild colonies in the Nilgiris. Their locations, species, time spans, and methods differ, so their results cannot be combined into one percentage for India. The 2023 conservation brief describes a shortage of primary research and calls for stronger monitoring and centralized occurrence and population data.

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A project description on India’s Science, Technology & Innovation Portal says the 2022–2025 BEEscape project, led by researchers at IISER Thiruvananthapuram, was investigating landscape-level pesticide use and the health of native social bees. The portal also notes that pollinator research in India is limited. A project description explains what researchers set out to study; it is not, by itself, a set of published findings.

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Why bee losses matter for crops

India’s Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation reported more than 800 bee species in the country. Its 2026 pollination-services explainer estimated that pollination services accounted for roughly 8–10% of total crop-output value over 2012–13 to 2021–22, using crop-specific pollination-dependence ratios. The estimated value rose from ₹115.41 thousand crore in 2012–13 to ₹266.33 thousand crore in 2021–22, with fruits and vegetables contributing the largest share over that decade.

Those figures estimate the economic value of pollination services; they do not measure bee populations or show whether bee numbers increased or decreased. They do illustrate why changes in pollinators matter to agriculture.

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What helps protect bees

The conservation brief’s recommendations focus on the conditions bees need, rather than on a single product or quick fix:

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  • Retain native vegetation and flowering resources around farms and other landscapes.
  • Protect or provide food and nesting resources, including suitable nesting substrates where appropriate.
  • Improve monitoring of bee populations and study pesticide exposure, including chronic and sub-lethal effects.

A bee hotel or nesting block may help some solitary bees where it is suitable and well maintained; it cannot address pesticide exposure or landscape-scale loss of forage, and it is not a solution for wild social-bee colonies. Plant choices should be appropriate to local conditions and native species.

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