The difference is in the bees.
Why settle for less, when the more potent original grows wild right here?
Three native bees, many honeys
The giant rock bee builds vast, single-comb hives on cliff faces and tall trees across the Western Ghats. Wild and undomesticated, its colonies produce bold, resinous honey that tribal foragers harvest by hand, one wild comb at a time.
Small, fast and often overlooked, the red dwarf bee builds delicate open combs low in the forest understorey. Its honey is lighter and more floral, carrying the specific wildflowers it forages within a short flight of the comb.
India's native hive bee, kept in wooden boxes across our moringa and jamun estates. Unlike imported species, it's fully adapted to Indian climates and forages patiently within a single estate, giving each harvest a distinct, single-bloom character.
Honey From Our Native Bees
Four honeys, each from a specific bee and a specific place.
Pure Beeswax Beauty
The same hives that give us honey give us beeswax — rendered pure, nothing synthetic.
Launching Soon
Pure beeswax lip balm, beard cream, and moisturizer — currently in the works.
Why we started Navanila
We began keeping bees in 2021. Early on, we noticed something the rest of the honey aisle wasn't talking about: almost every jar on the shelf, in India and abroad, comes from one imported species — the Italian bee. It's easy to farm and it produces honey in volume, so more beekeepers switch to it every year, while India's own native bees are quietly left behind.
That's a loss, because honey from India's native bees — the rock bee, the red dwarf bee, and Apis cerana indica — is widely regarded by traditional beekeepers as the more potent, more complete honey. Most people have simply never been offered the choice.
Honey is one of the most naturally well-tolerated foods there is, and we believe what people reach for should be the real, native thing — not just whatever is easiest to farm at scale. So Navanila set out to do two things at once: put pure, single-origin native honey into the hands of people who care what they eat, and give India's traditional beekeepers a reason to keep working with the bees that actually belong here.
Every jar you buy is a small vote for that — native bees over imported ones, tradition over convenience. Join the Navanila journey.