Green forest is Nepal's wealth' .Justify the statement
Answers
Answer:
Explanation:
Rich in hospitality, culture, scenery, bio-diversity and natural resources, the country is not just admired by tourists out to have fun, but also by scholars, scientists and researchers from around the world seeking to enhance knowledge in the fields of anthropology, linguistics, botany, zoology and other sciences. Then there are others who have gone a step further to invest in hospitality sectors and some who have shown keen interest in exploring the potentials of agriculture, horticulture, floriculture, ayurvedic medicines and host of other enterprises that tap the nation’s natural wealth. They are the people whose perception about Nepal have taken an about turn over the time.
Their enlightenment?—that Nepal is richer than many developed countries in terms of per capita allocation of natural resources!
Yarsagumba, the mysterious herb
People of Humla, Jumla and Dolpa, for example, can earn between 60,000 to 1 lakh rupees or more per day collecting just one kilogram of a strange type of medicinal ‘herb’ called yarsagumba. Children bunk school, adults leave aside their routine work and women spend great amounts of time collecting these herbs. Dolpa is known as the major source for this exotic elixir-like substance. Yarsagumba, also called yarchagumba (or jeevan buti, in Nepali), is found in sub alpine meadows from 3,500 meters (11,500 feet) and above. It is collected between May and July each year, and it is known that more than one harvester has lost his life while searching for this herbal fungus at high altitude. What’s amazing is the value of this mountain herb. A tentative estimate suggests that yarsagumba currently sells for at least 200 rupees per strand. Since there is no formally regulated market in the herb, at least not within Nepal’s frontiers, its prices witness a high degree of volatility—from 315 rupees a decade and half ago to 105,000 rupees (or more) per kilogram today.
And, just what is this popular, lucrative and mysterious herb? Yarsagumba is a rare species of parasitic caterpillar fungus known to scientists as Cordyceps sinensis. This medicinal elixir-like substance is claimed by many people to be a life saving herb popularly used as an aphrodisiac and tonic, one that improves overall immunity of the body.
If the rampant collection of yarsagumba goes on unchecked, however, people might end up disrupting the alpine ecology where it grows, potentially putting it on the endangered species list. The process of collecting yarsagumba, therefore, needs to be regulated in a way that allows controlled harvesting, but which does not deprive the villagers of a source of income.
Yarsagumba is just one of some 700 herbs with medicinal properties recorded in Nepal to date. Researchers say that a comprehensive study encompassing the length and breadth of the country can push the number of the plants species with medicinal value to more than a thousand.