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The Nepal Southern Agricultural Science and Technology Park was officially launched on Tuesday at the Agriculture and Forestry University in Chitwan, Bagmati Province. This initiative is part of the China-South Asian Countries Poverty Alleviation and Cooperative Development Center.

The park was jointly inaugurated by the Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Chen Song and Chitwan Mayor Renu Dahal. The park aims to enhance hybrid rice production in Nepal, while also fostering cooperation in rice cultivation, livestock and fish farming, and greenhouse vegetable production.

Ambassador Song noted that the park represents the latest progress in agricultural cooperation between China and Nepal. He emphasized that this project is a significant step toward realizing the agreements made by the leaders of the two countries last year.

“Chongqing has advanced agricultural science and abundant resources. Our agricultural cooperation can unlock greater potential for Bharatpur, driving forward shared development and prosperity for both our cities and countries,” Song said.

Mayor Dahal expressed her gratitude to the Chinese government for its collaboration with agricultural experts from the university. She highlighted that this partnership will significantly improve rice production and uplift the livelihoods of farmers in Nepal.

“Nepal Southern Agricultural Science and Technology Park symbolizes the enduring friendship between Nepal and China. It stands as a center of knowledge, research, and innovation, utilizing advanced agricultural technologies to boost productivity,” Dahal remarked. She also extended her thanks to the Chongqing Municipal Government and Agricultural Committee for their technical and financial support, as well as to the China Foundation for Rural Development for managing the project.

Prof Dr Shardha Thapaliya, the academic director of the university, also expressed her appreciation for the Chinese government's efforts in launching the park. “As the largest and oldest agricultural and forestry university in Nepal, we are honored to participate in and support this project, working closely with Chinese agricultural experts to implement hybrid rice cultivation in Nepal,” she stated.

The event was attended by several key figures, including Wang Shijie, deputy director of the Chongqing Agriculture and Rural Committee, Han Ruichun, director of the International Cooperation Department of the Chongqing Agriculture and Rural Committee, and Zou Zhiqiang, director of the Nepal Office of the China Foundation for Rural Development.

Shijie said that the park’s launch is another milestone under the ‘Light Up the Future’ initiative by the China-South Asian Countries Poverty Alleviation and Cooperative Development Center. Similarly, Zhiqiang pledged to ensure the successful implementation of the project by providing necessary services to all involved.

In July 2018, Nepal gifted two pairs of endangered greater one-horned baby rhinos to China as part of rhino diplomacy. The first pair was Bhadra (male) and Rupasi (female), who boarded a chartered flight to the Chinese city Guangzhou as symbolic ambassadors of Sino-Nepal friendship.

Right before their flight, I had followed all the preparatory activities and rhinos’ road journey in a truck from Chitwan National Park to Kathmandu. After exactly five years, this June, when I traveled to Guangzhou, I couldn’t stop myself from saying hello to the exquisite and rare pair living in a special zone of Chimelong Safari Park.

As Harisharan Pudasaini, Consul General at Nepali Consulate Office in Guangzhou, said, the baby rhinos have not just found a new home in Guangzhou, but also have helped strengthen the friendship between the two countries. “Nepali rhinos are in good hands, growing in a safe and healthy environment. Every time I visit the park, I feel like they are happy and smiling for being able to see us; their Nepali connections. It’s a special feeling.” Are they really happy? How is their new home in China? I tried to find answers through Zhang Xueli, general manager of Chimelong Safari Park.

Excerpts from the interview:

What is the current status of baby rhinos brought from Nepal?

On 12 July 2018, the young Bhadra and Rupasi boarded a chartered flight from Nepal's capital Kathmandu to Guangzhou to start their new life in Chimelong, China. Bhadra and Rupasi are in good condition and have grown up healthy. Bhadra, the male Greater One-horned Rhino, has grown from 670 kg to 1,830 kg, with a total weight gain of 1,160 kg, while the female Rupasi, has grown from 865 kg to 1,474 kg, with a total weight gain of 609 kg.  

Have they adapted to the new environment? How is their nature, food habits and daily activities?

Yes, they are now adapted to their living environment in Chimelong. They are docile and enjoy basking in the sun on the ground. They are large and cute animals. In order to ensure that Nepal’s national treasure is better adapted to the Chinese environment, Chimelong Group has specially set up a special farm for Asian rhinos, planting a large number of high-quality elephant grass for Greater One-horned Rhinos to eat a large amount of food, while adding other grass, leaves, some amount of vegetables and fruits, concentrate and other foods to make it nutritiously balanced. RUPASI especially likes carrots. At the same time, in order to solve the imbalance of dietary fat, soluble and insoluble carbohydrates, minerals and vitamins, Chimelong has developed a special diet for them, adding salt bricks during the feeding process. We believe that the inorganic salts in salt bricks can promote the bone growth of Greater One-horned Rhinos. In addition, Chimelong deliberately expanded the logistics conservation area, which consists of the hay area and the soil area, so that they can express their daily behaviors freely- roll mud bath and grind.

Do you plan to continue keeping them in a special protected area or relocate in the public section of the park?

At present, the two rhinos from Nepal are nearing adulthood. Because the species is so valuable, breeding and enlarging the population is a priority compared to the park display. Chimelong is currently concentrating its efforts to carry out scientific research and strive for early reproduction. Meanwhile, Chimelong has put the exhibition on the agenda and will show them to the public at the right time.

Any specific future plans regarding the increase in their population?

Chimelong has built a herbivorous research center, and continues to carry out scientific research on rhino protection and breeding, constantly breaking through the artificial conservation technology of rhinos, and successfully achieving the breeding of black and white rhinos. At present, Chimelong animal conservation and scientific research team is working on the conservation technology of Greater One-horned Rhino, cooperating with the European Association of Zoos and Aquariums (EAZA) and  participating in EAZA breeding program, and striving to achieve successfully breeding at an early date. In addition, we hope that the Nepali authorities will re-approve the export of Greater One-horned Rhino to Chimelong and establish a sustainable artificial population in Chimelong. In the future, Greater One-horned Rhinos individuals born in Chimelong will be returned to Nepal, making contributions to Nepal’s wild population protection and public education, as well as the world's rhino conservation.

Since they are in a special protected area, do the Chinese public have any impression about these Nepali rhinos?

More than 100 years ago, the Greater One-horned Rhino was distributed in the wild in China. There are records of rhinos on oracle bone inscriptions dating back more than 3,000 years, referring to the Greater One-horned Rhino. Even now, the Greater One-horned Rhino has a high profile among the Chinese public and is an important flagship species that China needs to restore its wild population in the future. Bhadra and Rupasi carry the deep friendship and trust of the Nepalese people to the Chinese people. As the symbol and messenger of China-Nepal friendship, they have been carefully cared for and managed by the Chimelong conservation team. They are growing healthily and vigorously in their new home in Guangzhou.

What is the significance of these rhinos in China? How will the Sino-China friendship be promoted through this precious gift? 

The Greater One-horned Rhino carries the memory of the Chinese people for thousands years, and has a high status in the minds of the Chinese people. Greater One-horned Rhino is extinct in the wild in China. We hope that with the gradual recovery of wild habitats in China, we can reintroduce Greater One-horned Rhinos to the wild in China in the near future through our efforts. Nepal is known in China for its famous snow-capped mountains, and the Chinese public doesn't know much about Nepal’s Greater One-horned Rhinos. Through the publicity of the Greater One-horned Rhinos of Nepal, people can learn about the diversified wildlife and natural environment of Nepal, more and more people will be attracted to travel to Nepal, friendly exchanges between the people of China and Nepal will be promoted, and the friendship between two countries will be enhanced. May the friendship between people of China and Nepal last forever.

The precious plant that has brought riches to many villages in Nepal’s highlands.

Thousands of people in western Nepal trek up to highlands (as high as 5,000 meters) to gather yarsagumba with the hope of making millions of rupees. But this year was unlike any other before. The harvest season has just come to an end leaving behind collectors with grim faces.

On the one hand they had to work around Covid-19-related restrictions and on the other it was also difficult to find yarsagumba.

Those who trek up for yarsagumba live under precarious conditions for a month or two every year with their families. They roam around to collect the precious plant, generally found at an altitude of 3,000-5,000 meters, and which is believed to possess aphrodisiac qualities.

With more and more people venturing into the wilderness to gather yarsagumba to meet its insatiable demand, its very existence has been threatened. Thus the International Union for Nature Conservation (IUCN) placed it under the ‘vulnerable’ Red List in 2020.

The locals, who call this fungal plant kira (insect), have also been frustrated in recent years due to growing competition and declining availability.

Take, for example, the people in Maikot village of Rukum district in western Nepal who depended on yarsagumba found in Pupal Valley, located between Rukum and Dolpa districts, for their livelihood.

The plant is no longer easily available, feels Bharat Kumar Pun, an active member of the local yarsagumba management committee. “In the past few years, the number of hands picking yarsagumba has grown alarmingly,” he says. “The number of yarsagumba plants has decreased alarmingly though.”

“A decade ago, we used to collect up to 150 kg of the plant,” recalls Pun. “It is difficult to collect 50 kg now.”

Whereas a single person used to collect hundreds of pieces in the past, you can hardly collect 15-30 pieces a day now, adds Pun. “We didn’t know the reasons earlier, but now we have heard about the impact of climate change. That seems real and logical.”

I had visited Pupal during the 2016 harvesting season and couldn’t find a single piece in a day. The situation is pretty much the same, say locals.

Around 2,500 people from the local villages went to Pupal to harvest yarsagumba last year. This year, due to covid-related restrictions, only locals were permitted to collect the plant. Each collector was charged Rs 2,000. 

Profitable no more

Twenty-five-year-old Sushit Pun Magar was one of those who managed to get a permit. But her excitement was short-lived, as she could hardly find six or seven pieces of yarsagumba in the first couple of days. A piece of yarsagumba generally sells between Rs 300 to Rs 1,200, depending on its quality.

Realizing that it was a waste of time, she instead decided to run a temporary hotel for other collectors instead. She earned just Rs 3,200 selling the pieces she collected but made much more by dispensing dal bhat, the staple Nepali diet. “Cooking and serving dal bhat was easier and more profitable,” she says.

Encouraged by the profits yarsagumba brought, many people in Maikot even quit their traditional income sources such as agriculture, livestock, and weaving. They used to trek to the highlands for two months and sustain their livelihood year-round from the income. But many of them are now planning to get back to their old ways.

Some like Aita Man Pun, 41, of Maikot, have even migrated to other cities seeking employment. Now based in Nawalparasi, he has not gone to pick yarsagumba for three years.

“It has become difficult to find good pieces,” he says. “Earning enough from it has thus become hard. It was our major source of income, but we failed to protect it.”

He recalls how his sister, Mayamani, used to make big profits by collecting yarsagumba. She alone collected 1,500-1,900 pieces every season. “People were honest back then. There was no looting even when you dried all the collected fungus in the open,” he recalls.

Mayamani now lives in Japan, while their younger brother has also quit the yarsa hunt out of frustration.

Besides issues like haphazard camping, littering, dust, smoke, and grazing of sheep and horses, Pun reckons climate change too might be responsible for the plant’s decline. He has seen soil quality degrade. 

Here comes climate change

Though locals have heard about climate change, they don’t know how it manifests locally. Biodiversity researcher Uttam Babu Shrestha also suspects the role of climate change on the decline in Yarsagumba volumes as the plant is sensitive to changing temperature. “But there has been no field-based scientific study to make a definite claim.”

But there are enough studies to prove that climate change in the Himalayas has impacted hydrology, agriculture, and ecosystems and resulted in altitudinal shifts of vegetation communities. Thus its impact on the availability of yarsagumba can’t be ruled out.

“A modeling-based study suggested that a 1-degree increase in temperature reduces the production of yarsagumba by 64 percent,” says Shrestha.

Shrestha stresses the need for a proper study of its ecology and the natural rate of reproduction. “We also need to work with local communities and build formal and informal institutions that can regulate detrimental harvesting practices,” he adds.

Shrestha is disappointed that even though the government, including local municipalities, collect high taxes from harvesters and traders, it does not invest in proper study and research on yarsagumba or on the security of harvesters.

A 2018 research titled ‘The demise of caterpillar fungus in the Himalayan region due to climate change and overharvesting’, an analysis of multiple evidence-based approaches using data spanning nearly two decades and four countries, revealed that caterpillar fungus production is declining through much of the Himalayan range.

“While collectors increasingly attribute the decline in caterpillar fungus to overharvesting, habitat and production modeling suggests that climate change is also likely playing a role,” Kelly A Hopping from the Department of Earth System Science, Stanford University, and Stephen M Chignell, from Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability, Colorado State University, write in their report.

“Significant winter drying trends in Nepal may be shifting the timing of snowmelt and reducing moisture availability needed to promote fungal fruiting, thus potentially contributing to the decreasing production,” the report reads. 

Not a priority

The government started issuing permits to harvest and collect yarsagumba in 2006. Before that, it was a free-for-all. For export, traders must seek the permission of the Department of Forests, the Department of Commerce, and the District Forest Office by paying certain taxes.

After China's Tibet, Nepal is the second-largest supplier of this expensive plant to global markets. The fungus is mostly found in Dolpa, Rukum, Bajhang, and Darchula districts.

The Ministry of Forests and Environment (MoFE) agrees that there have not been enough studies to understand the impact of climate change on yarsagumba.

The ministry issues directives in terms of managerial tasks, including yarsagumba collection, waste management, and social problems, according to Buddhi Sagar Poudel, its spokesperson. “We have collection-based protocols but we lack scientific protocols.”

But he promises that the issue “will feature in our to-do list and we will soon conduct macro-level studies.” 

Yarsagumba fact file

Yarsagumba, also known as caterpillar fungus or Himalayan Viagra, goes by the scientific name of Ophiocordyceps sinensis. The finger-shaped fungus that sprouts above the soil and is two to five centimeters long is believed to have aphrodisiac qualities. It is usually golden in color, soft to touch, and tastes like a dairy product. Besides its aphrodisiac qualities, people believe that it can treat cancer and other lungs, kidneys, and stomach related diseases. Though this precious plant is sold across the world, China is its biggest market.