JUMLA, April 9 -- Patarasi Rural Municipality of Jumla has launched a campaign to prevent school students from going to the highlands to pick Yarsagumba, a prized medicinal herb. Every year during the Yarsa picking season, a large number of children along with their parents flock the high hills for collecting Yarsa. This disturbs their studies for around three months.

Hence, the local unit has urged the parents to change this practice and stop taking their children with them for this purpose. Tek Bahadur Budhthapa, chief administrative officer of Patarasi informed Republica that this decision has been taken to discourage the trend of mobilizing children in household and other activities by compromising their studies.

Usually after mid-A...