With the Cordyceps collection season about to start, the Bumthang Dzongkhag Administration has introduced stringent waste management rules to deal with the growing amount of trash in Cordyceps collection sites.
From this season, Cordyceps collectors will have to pay an additional Nu.1,000 as security deposit on top of the usual permit fee of Nu. 510. They will have to bring back five kilograms of trash from the Cordyceps collection sites to claim their security deposit.
Authorities said that the defaulters would not be issued permits from next year.
In recent years, growing waste in Cordyceps collection sites has become a major environmental concern, according to officials of Wangchuck Centennial National Park.
Every year, during the month-long Cordyceps harvesting season, over 900 collectors enter the alpine mountains north of Bumthang. They leave behind a huge amount of litter and waste.
The park officials have been cleaning up the sites after the harvest season along with gewog officials and the local residents. However, a lot of trash still remains in the collection sites.
Forestry officials said that the waste poses a threat to the snow leopard habitats and alpine meadows.
Bumthang Dzongdag Pasang Dorji said that it was heartbreaking to see the extent of rubbish scattered all over the mountains. He said it was unreasonable for foresters and gewog office to clean the areas littered by the collectors.
He said collectors have to take responsibility for their trash. “The Cordyceps collectors carry clothes and groceries into the collection areas but when they return, all they bring home are the Cordyceps leaving the wastes in the alpine grasslands,” said the Dzongdag.
Park officials feel that the security deposit system would help in mitigating the waste problem.
In 2012, the Park office had introduced a waste management strategy called the ‘Garbage In, Garbage Out’ or the GIGO initiative. However, only about 30 percent of the wastes taken into the collection areas were brought back.
Meanwhile, foresters in Bumthang have also started manning the recently installed checkpoint at Zangtherpo to monitor illegal collectors.
The Cordyceps collection permits for Bumthang will be issued on May 18.
Also, as part of COVID-19 preventive measures, all collectors will be required to attend mandatory flu screenings when they return from the collection sites.
Kipchu
