The Bee Garden Project aims to highlight the importance of ‘functional biodiversity’ and draw attention to the role of non-honey bee pollinators in an urban context.

Solitary bees are important pollinators that ‘buzz-pollinate’ plants such as brinjal, tomato and chillies. They require dead wood, twigs, or exposed soil for nesting, and are thus constrained in the urban environment. ‘Bee hotels’ are a simple and accessible means of conservation action to help meet the dearth of nesting material. Bee hotels incorporated into edible home gardens could help increase harvest as vegetable and fruit plants provide excellent bee forage. This project will serve as an initiative for integrating pollinators into urban landscapes and for furthering citizen interest in pollinator conservation.

by Team PUSH, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) and Agasthyamalai Community-based Conservation Centre (ACCC)

Project Start Date: December 2021

Contact info: team_push@atree.org