The "viagra" of the Himalayas, an aphrodisiac mushroom more expensive than gold | Chronic

It is the Yarsagumba, a mushroom a little bigger than a pin and that is generated in the body of a caterpillar. It reaches between 3,000 and 5,000 meters altitude in the Himalayan regions of Nepal, India, Bhutan and the Tibetan plateau.

According to medicine, it can treat impotence, asthma and cancer. For this reason, it has become very necessary in Asian markets, where a kilo of this food can cost around $ 100,000.

However, its acquisition poses a risk to the local population because it is located on the slopes of the highest mountain range in the world.

Thus, tens of thousands of residents of northwestern districts of Rukum, Mugu, Dolpa and Bajhang have gone in search of the mushroom, at the beginning of a season that will keep them kneeling for a month and at looking for stems between 3,000 and 5,000 meters above sea level. 5 thousand 500 meters.

Works and works in the cities stop and cities are virtually paralyzed during the harvest period. On average, a person can enter about $ 3,000 per season, which is three times the average annual salary in Nepal.

However, people with modest social backgrounds who have little or no equipment run the risk of dying for lack of oxygen or disease because of the low temperatures in an area where they have to climb in continuous motion for three or four weeks. four days until you reach the starting point. plants.

The administrative head of the Dolpa District Coordination Committee, Krishna LamsaHe said that three people had died because of altitude sickness: a high cost for the formation of a fungus that when it is finally introduced to the market from the heights of the Himalayas, is transported by helicopter so that no one can steal it on the road.