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Gallery: Honey hunters risk their lives to harvest wild honey

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DOLAKHA: Groups of men risk their lives to harvest much sought-after wild honey from hives on high cliffs in Dolakha district. [gallery columns="1" size="full" link="file" ids="17338,17323,17339"] Hiking for hours through the steep mountains, a group led by experienced honey hunter Devi Bahadur Napali carried food, bamboo ropes, sharp bamboo sticks and other tools needed to harvest the honey. A minor slip could mean falling hundreds of feet and sure death for the hunters, who carefully navigated the steep and narrow openings on the mountain. Before starting to climb a steep cliff high above the Tamakoshi River, group leader Nepali reminded the group to ensure they had enough food, water and local alcohol. [gallery columns="1" link="file" size="full" ids="17325,17326"] They piled up grass and logs at the bottom of the cliff and lit a fire to smoke the bees out of their hives. [gallery columns="1" size="full" link="file" ids="17336,17331"] Nepali climbed up a ladder made from bamboo rope with a sharp bamboo stick in one hand and a basket in another — the stick to break off the hives and the basket to collect them. [gallery columns="1" link="file" size="full" ids="17324,17343,17335"] Dangling in the air, he sliced off pieces of hives and caught them with the basket, then gave a signal to a teammate to use a rope tied to the basket, full of dripping hives, to lower it to the ground. Two other team members prepared to clean off all the bees and squeeze the hives to extract the honey. [gallery columns="1" link="file" size="full" ids="17331,17327,17337,17341"] Thousands of bees hovered over the men's faces, which were protected by face nets. [gallery columns="1" link="file" size="full" ids="17332,17330,17328,17340"] Nepali's hands were swollen badly. He was stung on his hands, feet and elsewhere on his body. He drinks the alcoholic beverage, he said, to make the pain bearable. [gallery columns="1" link="file" size="full" ids="17333"] On this day, the group was able to harvest around 34 litres (9 gallons) of honey from the cliff colony. They will be able to sell it at a market for Rs 3,000 ($25) a litre.