‘It is not yet clear who will be responsible for this’ — bees continue to die in Tatarstan
90 bee colonies have died in the Tyulyachinsky district of Tatarstan, beekeeper Alexey Domolazov told Realnoe Vremya. Local beekeepers do not yet know what exactly the insects died from, but they assume that they were poisoned by pesticides during the processing of fields. Read the details in the material of Realnoe Vremya.
“Flying bees almost all died”
According to the beekeeper, the incident occurred on June 18 in the village of Taktamysh. The bees began to die after processing rapeseed fields with pesticides. Domolazov says that they had not warned about the treatment of the fields in advance. The beekeepers were notified of this on the same day.
“Even if we had been warned in advance, nothing could have been done, bees are not big cattle that can be closed. In general, there were 90 bee colonies, very few of them remained alive, the flying bees almost all died. Representatives from the district administration, representatives from the Beekeepers of Tatarstan NGO came to us, they helped us to send bees for examination. The district administration has not said anything yet, they have only promised to sort out the situation," Alexey Domolazov shared.
The interlocutor of Realnoe Vremya added that it is not yet known which company was processing the fields. It will be clear after the results of the examination come. As Domolazov says, it is not clear who will be responsible for this. The beekeeper stressed that it is not possible to identify the perpetrators without the results of the examination.
“Bees died in our country in 2019, but the death was small, and we did not attach much importance to this. This time, there has been a massive insect plague, all over the village. Last time, the bees died after poisoning with pesticides. Now we want to sort out what happened so that this does not happen again," commented Domolazov.
Beekeepers are ready to go to court
As the Beekeepers of Tatarstan NGO stated, three suffered beekeepers have already expressed a desire to file a claim with the court for compensation for material damage. The total number of victims in the village of Taktamysh is much higher. Many owners of bee colonies are silent. In the neighbouring village of Abdi, seven more beekeepers are ready to go to court, about 100 bee colonies have also been affected there.
Realnoe Vremya wrote that a beekeeper from Tatarstan Nurulla Zakirov became the first beekeeper in the republic who won a lawsuit for the death of bees. The beekeeper was able to sue compensation from Severny farm of the owner of Vamin Group, Mintimer Mingazov. Zakirov should receive more than 400 thousand rubles from the agricultural firm. It should be noted that this has happened for the first time in the last 10 years.
The story of Nurulla Zakirov's bee poisoning has been going on since 2022. It was then that the story of the mass death of insects became resonant. The first bee plague occurred in 2021, when 80-90% of bee colonies died, the repeated mass death of insects happened just last year. After the examination in Moscow, it became clear that the bees of the beekeeper died precisely because of toxic substances. In court, it was also possible to prove that the Severny farm violated the notification rules. Besides, when treating the fields, a substance was used that was not declared in advance.