Learning about keeda jadi - Himalayan viagra
As you drive past Joshimath towards Tapovan you enter into the picture-postcard territory of Uttarakhand. The Rhododendrons have bloomed, so have the luscious khumane and plums, the lush green Alpine forests stand tall on the himalayan slopes, mountain streams cross your road at times sonorously and at places hurriedly making a gurgling noise.
The birds are full on!! The melody is compromised a bit but there is no shortage of enthusiasm and vigour in their singing. The snow-peaked Nandadevi stands tall on the horizon right through your drive - watching you benevolently.
I take a right detour and drive into a road less travelled. After off roading for a few kilometers I reach a small cluster of houses that boasts itself of being a village and interact with a farmer couple. Their pahadi dogs give us a sniff over and declare us safe enough for their master to interact with us!!
The story is the same - back breaking work throughout the year with marginal returns. Winters are miserable. Their cows ensure milk and ghee, their fields give an adequate produce of rajma, potatoes, finger millets and walnuts. But money?
That’s when I learned about “keeda jadi” - literally meaning the worm herb. It’s called cordyceps fungus in English. At an altitude of above fourteen thousand feet, where the glacier starts melting, one has to scratch the bare earth to discover them at strategic locations. The herb penetrates the larva and mummifies it. After it has nourished itself thus it emerges out of it taking the shape of a worm like herb. It is used to make ayurvedic medicine which claims to cure cancer, stop ageing, take care of impotency and so on.
And now comes the part which will remind you of the nineteenth century ‘gold rush’ of California and Australia - because one kilogram of this herb fetches you eight to ten lakh rupees!! The garhwali youth are attracted to search this as it gives them the opportunity to earn a fast buck. Most of it is smuggled to China and Nepal where it is extensively used as an alternative medicine. India has not legalised the use of this herb and on the contrary dissuades its people from climbing those dangerous slopes to make a quick buck. Obviously many deaths have been reported with people slipping and falling off from those treacherous cliffs.
The farmer couple want their two sons to join the army or do some polytechnic course so that they can work in Dehradun. The last thing they want is for their kids to climb the treacherous slopes in the hope of making some cash. I couldn’t agree with them more.
After a sumptuous lunch I bought some home made ghee and continued on the road less travelled.
