Industry & Tourism

Yarsagumba, the Himalayan Fungus Worth More Than Gold, Is Running Out in Nepal (2026)

Nepal's Rs 2.7-million-a-kilogram caterpillar fungus season just closed in Dolpa, and four collectors didn't come back down.

By Laxman Rawal · Aug 31, 2026

High in Nepal's Karnali region, above 3,500 metres, there's a harvest that pays better than almost anything else a rural family can do, and it isn't a crop. It's a fungus that eats a moth from the inside out, and for six weeks every spring, whole villages in…

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What yarsagumba is

It's called yarsagumba, or Ophiocordyceps sinensis, and the way it grows is genuinely strange: a fungal spore infects a ghost-moth caterpillar burrowed in the soil, kills it, mummifies it, and then sends a single dark stalk up through the caterpillar's head…

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A season that keeps getting harder, not easier

For many families in Dolpa, Mugu and neighbouring districts, this single harvest supplies more than half of their entire year's cash income, more than farming, more than day labour, more than anything else available at that altitude. That is exactly why…

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A dangerous harvest

The risk is real. Nepal's Karnali Province police recorded four deaths from altitude sickness during the 2026 season, two collectors in Dolpa and two in Mugu, including 34-year-old Bhim Bahadur Bohara of Jumla, who died descending from Jagadulla pasture…

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What this means for trekkers

What this means for you If your Nepal trip runs through Dolpa or the Karnali region, and it does on our Upper Dolpo trek and Lower Dolpo trek , you're walking through the same high pastures this harvest depends on. May and June camps you might otherwise pass…

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