A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.
It was his passion and an obsession in planting trees that led Jadav Molai Payeng singlehandedly grow a thriving, lively 1360 acre forest near the river island Majuli in Assam. The forest — larger than the central park in New York City — is now known as the ‘Molai forest’and Payeng earned the title “Forest man of India”.
It was the scorching summer of 1978 when Jadav Payeng returned to his birthplace at Aruna sapori, a river island on the Brahmaputra. He had just completed his Class X exams from Baligaon Jagannath Baruah Arya Vidyalaya.The boy On reaching there witnessed a sight that shook him to the core. Payeng observed that the flow of migratory birds was gradually declining to the forest areas and wetlands near his home and snakes were disappearing in large numbers. More than a hundred snakes curved, looped and twisted lifelessly on the deserted sandbar.The boy’s heart broke.
He asked his elders, what would they do if all of us die one day, like these snakes. They just laughed and smirked but I knew I had to make the planet greener,” he says. His village elders told him that with decline in forest cover and deforestation, animals lost their homes. The solution was to build new homes or forests for the animals, they said.
Chasing his dream, Jadav Payeng, then a young lad, belonging to the Mishing tribal community in Jorhat district, in the north eastern state of Assam, began to plant trees regularly on the tough terrain of the eroded island covered with sand and silt. He sowed the seeds and shoots. Religiously since then, Payeng visited the island and planted a few saplings every day for 34 years.
"The island was close to my home and I began by planting bamboo and indigenous or non-valuable plants. It’s only since the past 15 years that I have begun to plant high value trees like teak," said the forest man.
Thirty-four years ago when he began to plant trees, no one, including him, had the slightest idea that his effort would give birth to an entire forest. Thirty-six years later, he has reaped a forest.That forest is now home to Bengal tigers, Indian rhinoceros, over 100 deer and rabbits besides apes and several varieties of birds, including a large number of vultures. There are several thousand trees. Bamboo covers an area of over 300 hectares. A herd of around 100 elephants regularly visits the forest every year and generally stays for around six months. They have given birth to 10 calves in the forest in recent years.
In the fertile period between April and June, he planted the forest. He rattles off the species, like names from an intimate family tree: bamboos, baheda, teak; gambhari; custard apple, star fruit, gulmohur; devil’s tree, tamarind, mulberry; mango, jackfruit, plum, peach, banyan; elephant grass and medicinal plants… the list is varied and exhaustive. Watering the growing area of plants posed a problem, too. He could not draw water from the river and water all the growing plants, as the area proved to be vast for one man.
He built a bamboo platform on the top of each sapling and placed earthen pots with small holes in them. The water would gradually drip on the plants below and water them through the week until the pots were drained off water.
Payeng’s efforts came into knowledge of the forest department officials in 2008 when they were in search of a herd of 115 elephants responsible for damaging property in a nearby village.
The herd had totally damaged his home, and the villagers were abusing him for their crop losses. But Molai was having one of the happiest days in his life. For he saw life, with the size of elephants, coming back to his forest.
The large and dense forest was well appreciated by the officials. World took note of the man.
Jadav Payeng was honoured at a public function arranged by the School of Environment at JNU on 22 April 2012 for his remarkable achievement. He shared his experience of creating a forest in an interactive session, where Magsaysay Award winner Rajendra Singh and JNU vice-chancellor Sudhir Kumar Sopory were present. Sopory named Jadav Payeng as "Forest Man of India".In the month of October 2013, he was honoured at Indian Institute of Forest Management during their annual event Coalescence. In 2015, he was honoured with Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in India. Payeng’s efforts in conservation have also been widely appreciated by the Assam government, academicians, and former president of India and eminent scientist, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.
The Forest Man of India" has undertaken a new project to plant trees along National Highways 37 and 52 in Dibrugarh and Dhemaji districts, which has witnessed "massive destruction" of forests because of the ongoing Bogibeel project.
Isn’t it amazing to see the willpower of this man who fought alone and won the battle single-handedly? Where we don’t hesitate to cut trees for our luxuries, he has sacrificed all the worldly pleasures to save the environment and the eco-system. The country needs more such superheroes who are tring to make the Earth a better place to live for one and all.Payeng’s story is truly inspirational, especially for those who doubt that one man cannot change the world. Today, we must also take pledge that whatever the odds, we must continue to work to make a better place to live in for everyone.
"Forest Man" an inspiring documentary film about the life of Green Warrior "Jadav Molai Payeng" , had won a number of awards at The American Pavilion, Cannes Film Festival !!!Check this out.
