A tiny court in a remote area of Nepal yesterday postponed its verdict on 36 men charged with the killing of a group
of farmers in a battle over a prized plant dubbed the “Himalayan Viagra.”
Police officers surrounded the courthouse to prevent violence between supporters of the defendants and victims’ relatives, but the court
was forced to put off the hearing after the prosecutor failed to arrive.
The defendants make up nearly all the male population of the tiny village of Nar, 4,000m high in the Himalayas, where the bodies of seven men who disappeared after going to hunt for the plant were found last year.
The 36 all deny murder and say the victims, who were from outside the village, died accidentally when a fight broke out over the right to hunt for the rare parasitic plant, yarchagumba.
The yellowy-brown fungus, which grows on the larva of a species of moth, is found in only a few parts of the Himalayas and the Tibetan plateau above 3,500m.
Known for its aphrodisiac qualities, yarchagumba attracts a high price on the international market and is in particular demand in China, where a kilogram can fetch tens of thousands of dollars.
It is a major source of income for families in many remote Himalayan communities, which fiercely protect the valuable plant from outsiders.
Battles over yarchagumba have broken out in the past, but have been resolved within communities that have traditionally operated outside the national judicial system because of their remoteness and cultural traditions.
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said the yarchagumba case “epitomizes the impact of the social changes that are going on in the far flung and previously inaccessible rural areas of Nepal.”
The valley where the victims went missing in June last year is among the most remote parts of Nepal, and it was several weeks before authorities learned of the extraordinary story of their deaths. Local authorities say police had to walk for days to reach the area, where they discovered the bodies of the seven men.
Police initially arrested the entire village, but later released the women and children. Most of the men were charged with murder and held in the district capital, which can only be reached on foot and does not have its own judge.
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