Editor's Note: I was going to dismiss this one as more eco-hyperbole, but this issue does need exploration, as we kinda sorta need bees and if there is anything to EMI interference (which is not a far-fetched theory) disrupting bees, we should explore how it happens, to what extent, and how to prevent it from happening. It makes sense that such a phenomenon would be more noticable in areas currently undergoing cellular development. It isn't simply wireless comms issue because this has only been a problem in recent years. For all we know EMI disruption is the last straw on top of industrial beekeeping, pollution, and a contagion that they would have been able to shake if not for the physical ballast. What do you think?

Thiruvananthapuram (Daily News & Analysis India) -  As in the case of the house sparrows, mobile towers are posing a serious threat to honey bees, hitting apiculture, which is a source of additional income to rural folk across Kerala, says a study.

Electromagnetic radiation from the mobile towers and cell phones were potent to kill worker bees that go out to collect nectar from flowers, suggests a study by environmentalist and Reader in Zoology, Dr .

Considering the recent plunge in beehive population reported from different parts of Kerala, the trend, if remedial measures are not taken, could even wipe out bees from Kerala within a decade, Pattazhy, who teaches in SN College at Punalur in Kollam district said.

In one of his experiments he found that when a mobile phone was kept near a beehive it resulted in collapse of the colony in five to 10 days, with the worker bees failing to return home, leaving the hives with just queens, eggs and hive-bound immature bees.

Electromagnetic waves emitted by towers were strong enough to cripple the "navigational skills" of the worker bees, who play a vital role in sustaining bee colonies, he said.

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