Eco-friendly Honey: A gift from Tribes

The forest-dwelling communities or Tribes have seen a decay of their conventional livelihoods over last few generations. They have lost hunting and are consistently suffering from degrading forest wealth. Modern education has not been of enough help in getting new livelihoods and the tribes have become an extremely deprived section of our population.

Oak Vanaushadhi Sanshodhan va Samvardhan Pratishthan (OVSSP), an NGO with its head office at the tribal Taluka of Karjat (District Raigad) has propagated an eco-friendly technique of honey collection as an alternative source of livelihoods for tribal people. The OVSSP was assisted by the KVIC (Khadi Village Industries Commission) in this endeavour.

This honey collection technique is based on collecting honey from the Jungle without damaging the honeybee-combs. The conventional technique included burning of honeybee-combs (or bee-hives). The new technique does not destroy the natural habitation of honeybees. The honey extracted is pure and without any chemicals. The OVSSP has further trained the tribal youth in packing and marketing of the honey and has popularised a brand called ‘Rajmachi’.

OVSSP is documenting traditional knowledge of medicines and is supporting that with references from Ayurved. The organisation has a network of voluntary health workers in 63 villages and Women’s Self-Help Groups in 29 villages.

OVSSP is registered as a public charitable trust. (Registration no.: E398. Dated: 6/12/2002/Raigad)


You can support OVSSP

OVSSP is planning to spread its network of voluntary health workers (Aarogya Rakshak) and is embarking on a new network of Krishi Vigyan Mandals (Farmers’ network for technology transfer).

OVSSP needs approx. Rs. 6 Lakhs to run the Krishi Vigyan Mandal network in 60 villages. You can contribute to raise this fund. Or:

  • Sponsor an Aarogya Rakshak: Rs. 3,000

  • Sponsor a Farmers’ Training: Rs. 5,000



Drop a cheque in the name of: “Sewa International”

Write to: info@sevasahayog.com or Call: +91 20 24458702 / +91 20 24433606


Our other partners-in-Livelihoods:

  • Lok Seva Mandal, Kinvat

  • Bhageerath Gramvikas Pratishthan, Akeri (Sindhudurg)

  • Jana Bharati Nyas, Kolhapur