Presentation
Martin JOHANSEN
France
Exposition
In a remote corner of the Indian region of Nagaland near the Burmese border, lives the Yimchunger tribe.They are one of the 16 ethnic groups living in this territory. They are considered some of the last ‘honey hunters’ of the region. Every spring and autumn, a smalll group of men leave their villages to collect wild honey along steep rocky cliffs. The giant honeybee (Apis dorsata) can measure up to 2.5 cm. Only four of the seven species of honeybees listed in the world are kept commercially. Dwarf and giant honeybees practice open-air nesting, directly on the steep cliffs found in the semi-tropical forests of Nagaland, making it difficult to keep them in man-made hives. Some nests reach 1.5 meters wide. A colony can have 50,000 bees and a nest can contain up to 20 kg of pure honey.