"Aita Prasad Gurung dangled off a cliff in Nepal, carefully manipulating a long pole with a blade at its end to cut away chunks of honeycomb after Himalayan bees fled the fumes from a fire set to drive them from their homes.
The 40-year-old wore a white hat with a net swathing his face to protect against stings as he hung 160 feet (50 m) off the precipice on a handmade ladder, braided from bamboo strands, to reach the bee colonies.
“It is fraught with danger of falling,” said Aita, whose community has traditionally harvested honey from hives perched hundreds of feet off the ground. “One must extract honey and stay safe at the same time.”
Now the generations-old craft is increasingly under threat as some experts say rising temperatures brought by climate change disrupt the growth of bees, the availability of their food and even pollination of plants.
“There were about 35 hives last year,” said another member of the community, Chitra Bahadur Gurung, 49, adding, “We barely have 15 now.”"
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