After delayed and poor harvest, yarsagumba collectors will now have to face depletion concerns

First came the ban in harvesting the fungus due to pandemic fears and now the government has taken note of the IUCN concern of conservation needs for the Himalayan ‘viagra’.

If there had been no pandemic, Tarjun Lama would have by now completed yarsagumba, the caterpillar fungus, harvest for this season. But this year, it was a long wait for Lama, a resident of Saipal Rural Municipality in Bajhang district, before he, and other harvesters, were permitted to travel north.