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Due to unusual snowfall\u00a0in these high Himalayan meadows this year, some villagers have apprehensions that the \u2018Yarsa Gumba\u2019 sprouting might be affected due to long duration of snow in the region while others are still expecting better results. ” Though there is no studies of how the fungus reacts on long duration under snow cover, we hope the fungus survives long duration snow and \u00a0this situation might result in more yield,” said\u00a0 Dr N.C. Joshi, a botanist working with Uttarakhand Council of Science and Technology at Manas Khand campus in Almora.<\/p>\n
For more than two decades, for villagers living in the higher Himalayan region, this has been a primary avocation since it was found that the Tibetan medicinal plant also grows in abundance in the meadows of Chiplakot besides the Himalayan sub-alpine region of western Nepal. \u2018Yarsa Gumba\u2019 is an intomophilus fungus found primarily in the sub-alpine region, 3,200 to 4,000 metres above the sea level. The fungus is parasitic like the caterpillar.<\/p>\n
The extraction of yarsagumba started in this part of the Himalayas in 1998 when Tibetan traders learnt of its presence here and began trafficking it to Tibet and China via Nepal.\u00a0The miraculous impact of \u201ccordyceps sinessis\u201d became known to the outside world when a few years back, Chinese women athletes were found using \u2018Yarsa Gumba\u2019 to energise them. The consumption of this aphrodisiac plant by the Chinese and Tibetans began some 1,500 years ago when some Chinese herdsmen observed that their livestock became energetic after eating a fungus-like grass.<\/p>\n
About 1,000 years later, the Ming emperors started using it as a tonic after developing powerful potions from it. Old Tibetan medical practitioners believed that \u201ccordyceps sinensis\u201d enhanced lung functioning, bolstered kidney energy, cured cough, impotence, spermatorrhoea, asthma, aching back and knees and general debility caused by long-term illness.\u00a0 \u2018Yarsa Gumba\u2019 fetches a good price for retail as well as in the wholesale market. The prices could range from Rs 80,000 to Rs 1,00,000 per kilogram.<\/p>\n
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Late snowfall affects extraction of \u2018Yarsa Gumba\u2019 in higher Himalayan areas B.D.Kasniyal Pithoragarh, April 13 More than 500 families of 60 villages of high Himalayan region of Munsiyari and Dharchula sub-divisions of Pithoragarh district, are uncertain about their earnings this summer as the extraction of \u2018Yarsa Gumba\u2019( cordyceps sinensis), caterpillar has been delayed this year …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,78,92,33,1284,91,59],"tags":[3964,159,945,160,3963],"class_list":["post-8542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-featured","category-international","category-international-political-national","category-national","category-uttarakhand","tag-chiplakedar","tag-munsiyari","tag-panchachuli-mountain-ranges","tag-pithoragarh","tag-yarsa-gumba"],"yoast_head":"\n