The price of the Yarsagumba depends upon the quality of the herb and there have been reports that it fetch a price of around Rs 15 lakh/kg at Pithoragarh last year.
Keera jari is available when the snow melts in the higher ranges of Himalayas. It is during this time that people from far-flung villages of Chamoli district gear up to collect the Keerajari.
Residents of Dasholi, Ghat, Urgam valley, Niti valley and Joshimath blocks of Chamoli district have already started shifting their belongings and ration to these places where they would stay for at least two months, searching and digging for the precious herb.
The villages of the district are left with only children and the elderly as majority of the young men and women go out to collect Keerajari.
Keera jari has brought prosperity in their homes and arrested the wave of urbanisation too.
Though the forest department issues permit to every individual through Van Panchayat for the collection of Keera jari to avoid over-exploitation, yet many engage in this illegally.
