On a damp Sunday morning in Sikkim, Pramod Hingmang and his partner Bharati Gurung set out for a short walk in the forest. It was raining and the hills were glistening in green. They weren’t heading anywhere in particular, just following instinct. Soon, in the mossy undergrowth, a flash of ochre caught Hingmang’s eye. It was a Cordyceps or commonly known as the caterpillar fungus—a rare, and expensive parasitic fungus that grows on insects and is coveted for its unique medicinal properties. “This is why every trip to the forest is different,” Hingmang says, looking at the rare fungus. “We don’t go looking for anything in particular. We walk, we observe, we learn.”
Hingmang, a software engineer by education, leads a small but growing group of citizen scientists for mushroom foraging walks across India. Together he and his partner, a microbiologist, have identified over 120 fungi species—without a formal training in mycology. What they lack in degrees, they make up for in field hours. “Mushrooms are the third kingdom,” he says. “We talk about flora and fauna, but fungi are always left out.” Their Instagram page which began as a personal diary has now become an extensive catalog of finds and field notes of Sikkim’s fungal biodiversity—a record that, until recently, has been scarce in India. “It’s a deeply de-stressing activity,” emphasises Hingmang, who leads a group for 20–25 people, attracting a mix of adventurers, conservationists and curious urbanites seeking a break from the usual routine. “I get many inquiries—not just from locals, but from travellers looking for something different,” says Hingmang, who aspires to build a mushroom club.
Across the country, Vhyom Bhatt is doing something similar—but in a very different landscape. His mushroom walks take place not in cloud-kissed forests but in city parks of Ahmedabad. “The idea is to help people realise that they’re not far from nature. In fact, nature thrives even in cities, if you know where and when to look,” adds Bhatt who found his way to fungi during the pandemic. Now a Vipassana meditator drawn to medicinal properties of mushrooms, he began growing oysters and reishi at home. Soon his curiosity pulled him into urban foraging communities.
In Delhi, far from the Himalayan forests, mushroom walks are finding an unlikely audience. At the helm is Sumit, founder of Shroomery—now one of India’s largest exotic mushroom farms supplying restaurants and cafes. “For a long time, I thought our work was simply to grow and sell mushrooms,” he says. “But mushrooms are just the tip of an enormous iceberg. Fungi are everywhere: in fermented foods, in the batter for idli or dosa, in medicines. Yet we’re rarely taught about it. Hence, most people never make the connection.”
Wanting to bridge that gap, he teamed up with Malavika Bhatia, a self-taught mycologist and skilled mushroom identifier. Together, they began hosting monsoon foraging walks in Delhi’s Sanjay Van Park, Hauz khas Forest, Jahanpanah City Forest, and Buddha Jayanti Park. The finds were surprisingly vivid: the reddish-brown, ringed cap of the reishi; the round, egg-like puffball; the star-shaped earth star; and even the ruby dapperling.
In many rural households, foraging still remains a seasonal ritual, where monsoon heralds the arrival of edible varieties. For Hingmang too, memories of his aunt cooking wild mushrooms sit alongside the, now popular, experiments like mushroom coffee and supplements. Sreekanth Kaleeswaran, Head of Marketing at Nuvedo—a mushroom-based health and wellness startup—has closely observed the country’s shifting relationship with fungi. “When we started, the market in India wasn’t ready for functional mushrooms. There were too many misconceptions” he says. “That’s why we began hosting walks with experts—to spark curiosity beyond consumption.”
He cites myths as a persistent barrier. “Many believe only white mushrooms are safe, while anything with colour is poisonous. In fact, some of the most potent medicinal mushrooms are vividly coloured—cordyceps, bright orange, used for stamina; reishi, deep reddish-brown, prized for immunity and sleep,” he says. Nuvedo’s adventures range from short, three-hour city park walks to multi-day trips in biodiversity hotspots like Wayanad and Sakleshpur—blending mushroom identification into an unforgettable foraging experience.
Have you gone shroom spotting yet?