800 grams of Cordyceps recovered

Siliguri: Foresters of Ambari Range of Baikunthapur Forest division recovered 800 grams of ‘Cordyceps’ or ‘Yarsagumba’. Earlier, two people were arrested with 13 grams of Cordyceps.

After interrogating them this large quantity of Cordyceps were recovered from Samar Nagar in Siliguri.

According to forest sources, these were brought to Siliguri to smuggle them to China.

On September 8, Foresters based on a tip-off arrested one person from the Samar Nagar area and another from Champasari area and recovered 13 grams of Cordyceps from them.

They were identified as Dendup Tamang, a resident of Kalimpong and Govind Chhetri from Nepal.

Alamgir Haque, the Range Officer of Ambari Range said: “The interrogation of the arrested revealed that five smugglers had taken a rented house in Samar Nagar in Siliguri and had been running the smuggling racket. On Wednesday night, forest officials raided the house, although the smugglers managed to flee from the spot and 800 grams of cordyceps was recovered. The estimated International market value of the seized material is about Rs. 20 lakh.”

Yarsagumba is mainly found in Tibet and the Himalayan Regions of Bhutan and Nepal.