Dehra Dun, May 28
In Uttarakhand, there’s been a free run on “Yarchagumba” — a unique herb-cum-fungus — seen to be an alternative to Viagra.
No more. The government has empowered “Van Panchayats” to extract and market the aphrodisiac.
It has good reason to. “Yarchagumba” is illegally taken out of the state and sold at more than Rs 1 lakh for a kilogram in China, Nepal and Hong Kong by common people and organised gangs.
As the snow melts, hundreds of villagers, many from Nepal, camp near the higher reaches of Chamoli and Pitthoragarh to extract the herb. Over time, some Nepali smugglers from Chamoli have also been arrested but the plunder has been going on unchecked.
Now, while the “Van Panchayats” get the right to extract "Yarchagumba", “Bheshej Sangh”, a cooperative selling herbs and medicinal plants, will scout for buyers in the world market.
“Yarchagumba” — its botanical name is “cordyceps sinensis”, is neither a plant nor an insect. At heart, it is a fungus that grows out of caterpillar larvae. It is like grass, which is two inches above the ground. The larvae, also of the same size, remain underground.
It is believed that, among Tibetan tribals, this herb was given to old horses to maintain their strength and vitality.
The demand for the herb has been going up steadily and, in the past about four years, armed smugglers from Nepal have been using terror tactics around the higher reaches of Pitthoragarh to corner huge profits.
With their Indian counterparts, these smugglers are also posing a threat to the wildlife in the higher reaches.
“So many unwanted and armed people in the alpine zones have added to our worries. We have told our staff to be vigilant,” Shrikant Chandola, chief wildlife warden of Uttarakhand, said.
But, with the government acting as a facilitator to stop the illegal collection of the herb, “Bheshaj Sanghs” would now be able to buy at a rate of Rs 50,000 a kilo from “Van Panchayats” and sell the herb further at fat profit.
“We are hopeful of more than 700-800 kilogram of herb this season,” S.K. Singh, additional secretary (herbs), said.
A time to stimulate revenue earning, surely...
