Honey collection campaign starts in Sundarbans

KHULNA, Apr 5: Honey collectors are expecting to collect around 3,000 maunds of honey and about 800 maunds of wax this year from both divisions of the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the country.

The forest authorities have already started giving permission to the honey collectors to collect honey from the forest this year.

Usually, the authorities allow the honey collectors popularly known as Mawals to collect honey from the forest in the month of April every year.

Forest department source said that each Mawal is to pay Tk 1,000 as revenue against collection of 100 kgs of honey and Tk 750 per 100 kgs of wax. The forest department has started issuing permits to Mawals to enter the reserved forest for collection of honey and wax from April 1 with a revenue target of Tk 20,00,000, DFO Zahir said.

Traditionally, a Mawali group, composing of 7 to 9 persons, is formed during the honey collection season. The group leader called Sajuni coordinates and operates the whole process. After the harvest, they no longer work together in the same group or in any activities requiring teamwork. The collectors carry fresh water, rice, pulses, cooking oil, kerosene oil, spices and medicines as they stay in the forest for about two months to collect honey.

Different companies, which manufacture herbal medicines, usually buy the honey from the collectors. One honey collector Abdul Khaleq Sana of village Dhamrial village said, the people of the Sundarban, traditionally involved in the forest resource collection with legal permits from the forest department, are suffering in various ways. Not only has their once easy access to forest resources been controlled, but also their very lives and livelihoods are now under threat.