Youths, including school going students, of the northern villages have climbed uphill to collect the aphrodisiac caterpillar fungus in the past few weeks carrying supplies and other stuffs for their excursion that could last for days. [break]
A teacher in Laduk village Chuda Basnet said students and youths from Bulung, Laduk, Orang, Chilankha, Bigu, Khopachangu, Babare and other northern villages have left for high altitude areas to pick yarsagumba.
Chief of GCA Satya Narayan Shah said yarsagumba found in Dolakha are smaller than those found in western hills. “There are around 3,500 pieces in a kilo of yarsagumba collected from the west while it takes around 7,000 yarsagumba found here to make a kilo,” Shah said.
Traders from far off visit local villages to buy yarsagumba. “A few local agents hand over the collected herbs to the traders in the village after paying the pickers,” Govinda Acharya of Bulung said.
The traders pay between Rs 400,000 and Rs 500,000 for a kilo of the herb to the agents while the pickers earn anything from Rs 5,000 to Rs 7,000 daily.
Singati office of GCA releases the collected yarsagumba with a receipt. The traders have to pay the GCA Rs 10,000 for each kilogram in tax. “We have intensified checking as a few people take the herbs without paying the tax,” Shah added.
Fear of robbery
A group robbed Rs 150,000 from a young trader at Soti of Sunkhani Village Development Committee (VDC) last week. The youth of Lamabagar was heading to Kathmandu with the herbs.
The trader, who had not got a receipt from GCA, did not report the robbery to the administration.
The traders are worried as some local youths have taken to robbing the traders. “Those who come to get the release receipts worry about the threat involved in carrying the herbs,” Shah revealed. “We even deploy police for the security of those who have a large quantity of the herbs,” he added.
Schools affected
Classes at the schools in northern villages have been affected before the summer vacation with students leaving their villages to pick the herbs. The District Education Office had scheduled summer vacation from June 20, but the classes at schools of the northern villages have been affected for the past three weeks.
Students were found playing in the ground when this scribe reached Sharada Secondary School in Bulung VDC Tuesday morning. “We have been playing after teachers said that classes will not be conducted as majority of the students have gone to pick yarsagumba,” a 10th grader said.
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