Beehives at Barabati Stadium in Cuttack. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, Nov. 15: Beehives in the galleries at Barabati Stadium, the venue for the one-day international match between India and West Indies on November 29, poses a serious threat to the spectators.

At present, there are over 10 big and small hives along gallery No. 7.

Officials of the Odisha Cricket Association said that from the safety point of view, bees did pose threat to the spectators. However, adequate measures would be taken to destroy the hives ahead of the match.

“The beehives are a regular phenomenon and all the hives would be destroyed at least a week before the match scheduled to be held at Barabati Stadium on November 29,” said secretary of the association Ashirbad Behera.

The exposed honeycombs are dangling from the linear sections beneath the outer roof beams of the gallery.

Usually, bees do not prefer to have hives out in the open.

But, since parks and green cover are found near the stadium, it has now probably turned into a safe zone for the insects.

Behera said expert honey collectors from Phulbani or any other place would be engaged to destroy the hives before the match as there was every possibility that the bees would form hives if they were destroyed early.

The association has been facing problems because of reappearance of beehives on regular occasions. Earlier, the association had launched “Operation Honeycomb” ahead of the India-Sri Lanka one-day international match in December 2009.

The organisers had also come across the same problem during the India-England encounter in November 2008. Honey collectors from Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj districts had removed the beehives.

On January 10, 2007, players and umpires were forced to go lie on the ground with faces down when a swarm of bees made their way into the playing area during an Orissa-Assam Ranji Trophy match. However, no one was injured in the incident.

In another development, the association has drawn up a special three-tier security check system to ensure foolproof safety measures during the one-day match.

Similarly, all preparations have been made for the sale of tickets from November 26.

The tickets have been priced at Rs 8,000, Rs 5,000, Rs 3,000, Rs 2,000, Rs 100 and Rs 400.

Players and students, however, can get gallery tickets at a concessional rate of Rs 200. Out of the total 33,480 tickets, 20,840 tickets would be for public sale and similarly 5,000 tickets would be sold online for the first time. The rest tickets would be reserved for the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the association.