Normal life at various parts of the district has been greatly affected due to snowfall on Sunday. Thousands of people who have gone to highlands to collect yarchagumba (Cordyceps sinensis) are hit hard due to the adverse weather condition.
Sher Bahadur Budha, who is now in Bhokpa area to pick yarchagumba, said hundreds of people are in a pitiable condition as the snow destroyed their makeshift tents. “There is the blanket of about seven-inch snow in the area. It has been still snowing,” Budha told the Post over telephone.
It snowed in Jagadulla, Kagmara, Kunasa, Bhokpa, Bhampe, Thage, Sagar, Nawarpani and Phulbari, among other places, where hundreds of people have gathered to make their fortune by collecting the parasitic fungus that grows out of a moth caterpillar.
It is estimated that 70 percent of the people gathered in the high pasture are women and children.
Sixteen yarcha collectors were killed during snowfall at Tangtunge highland in the district seven years ago.
Meanwhile, three people who reached Ruppatan in Majhphal VDC to collect yarchagumba fell ill due to the biting cold. They were taken to a local health post for treatment, police said.
According to Shey-Phoksundo National Park Office in Suligadh, the yarcha collectors started returning to the lower altitude due to the the snowfall.
28.12°C Kathmandu
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