In These New Times

Telegraph of India

27th May, 2010

New Delhi, May 26: Concerns that cellphones pose a threat to honeybees, articulated by Shah Rukh Khan’s character in My Name Is Khan, have now been bolstered by Panjab University zoologist Neelima Kumar’s experiments.

Electromagnetic radiation from cellphones appears to alter the behaviour of bees, her experiments suggest and add fresh evidence to observations reported by a team of German researchers seven years ago.

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Reports of such a colony collapse in nature in develop-

ing countries like India where electromagnetic radiation

(EMR) based technologies are comparatively new are

absent. It is possible that the electrosmog that prevails in

the advanced countries of the world has not yet affected

these countries. We are fortunate that the warning bells

have been sounded and it is for us to timely plan strate-

gies to save not only the bees but life from the ill effects

of such EMR.

CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 98, NO. 10, 25 MAY 2010 1376

*For correspondence. (e-mail: neelimark@yahoo.co.in)

Changes in honeybee behaviour and

biology under the influence of

cellphone radiations

Ved Parkash Sharma1 and Neelima R. Kumar2,*

1

Department of Environment and Vocational Studies, and

2

Department of Zoology, Panjab University, Chandigarh 160 014, India

Increase in the usage of electronic gadgets has led to

electropollution of the environment. Honeybee behav-

iour and biology has been affected by electrosmog

since these insects have magnetite in their bodies

which helps them in navigation. There are reports of

sudden disappearance of bee populations from honey-

bee colonies. The reason is still not clear. We have

compared the performance of honeybees in cellphone

radiation exposed and unexposed colonies. A signifi-

cant (p < 0.05) decline in colony strength and in the

egg laying rate of the queen was observed. The behav-

iour of exposed foragers was negatively influenced by

the exposure, there was neither honey nor pollen in

the colony at the end of the experiment.

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And so the much derided University of Koblenz-Landau experiment has been pretty much replicated by Indian scientists with the same incriminating results regarding EM radiation as a disrupter of honey bee activity. Will western press hacks swarm menacingly or quietly ignore it? We now have a body of work coming out of India around this crucial issue and hopefully they will start to take preventive action. Meanwhile the dying western civilization dooms itself with its ignorant and self-destructive deployment of military-industrial technology.

New Delhi, May 28 (PTI) Electromagnetic rays emitted by cellphones may sound the death knell for the honeybee which has been found to have altered its behaviour leading to the complete collapse of bee colonies, says a new study.

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