Foragers coming in loaded with pollen on the hive landing board.

In 2007, large commercial beekeepers started reporting big drop-offs in their bee colony populations. By 2008, estimated colony losses of between 30 and 70% were being reported, as a flurry of bad news about bees made the media rounds.

The loss since then of over 40% of the nation’s commercial honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies–most seemingly due to so-called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD; caused most likely by the IAPV virus)–ushered in predictions of dire consequences for valuable crops around the world due to a lack of pollinators.

But a recent analysis of global honey bee populations (by Aizen and Harder*) shows a 45% increase in total numbers since 1961. The data for this analysis came from a global database of managed honeybees. The same researchers note, however, that the global stock of honey bees is growing slower than the global demand for them–which comes primarily from the cultivation of “luxury” crops like fruits and nuts. The the year round demand for items like cherries, mangoes, almonds and pistachios is far out-pacing world-wide production, leading to the perception of a shortage of pollinators.

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Alphonso Mangoes in Crawford Market, Mumbai

The mango is so widely available in India, that the fruit itself is named Aam which translates from Sanskrit as ‘common.’ Even though the Indian subcontinent is home to more than a thousand varieties of mango, most Indians identify the fruit with the Alphonso variety. Popularly regarded as the reigning king among Indian mangoes, the Alphonso has a unique flavor - sweet and sumptuous with an aromatic citrus overtone. Cultivated primarily in the state of Maharashtra, along the verdant shores of Konkan coast, the Alphonso mango fruit fills the narrow lanes of Crawford Market in Mumbai every year from March to May.

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