This Man Single Handedly Converted 1360 Acres Sandbar Into A Forest Reserve. Read His Inspiring Story.

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Jadav Payeng, also known as India’s Forest Man, has been lauded for his single-handed work of converting a 1360 acres sandbar into a dense forest reserve. He was honoured with Padma Shri award this year for his remarkable achievements as a conservationist. This forest alongside Brahmaputra river is known Molai forest because of his nickname ‘Molai’. It is currently home to wild elephants, Bengal tigers, rhinos, deers and rabbits.

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How it all started??

It was in 1979 when floods washed a number of snakes on the sandbar. Payeng, then 16, realized that all the reptiles have died because of excessive heat and no tree cover on the barren sandbar. He was deeply affected by the death of reptiles and decided to contact the forest department to grown trees on the sandbar. They said nothing would grow here and suggested him to grow some bamboos. That’s when the journey of this amazing transformation of this sandbar to a dense lush green forest started.

Jadav then planted 20 seedlings of bamboo. He left his home, education and started living there. After a couple of years of hard work, the sandbar grew into a bamboo thicket and with more and more animals finding their homes inside that dense forest.  There is a great variety of flora and fauna which came there, he said in an interview with TOI.

It was only in 2008 that Assam Forest Department came to know about it when a number of elephants flocked to the nearby villages and destroyed a number of properties. The forest officers were shocked to see such a huge forest.

Future Initiatives

He is planning to take 2000 hectares of land near Kaziranga national Park. He is also a speaker which talks about afforestation and its benefits. His idea is to include plantation as a compulsory subject during school and every student should plant at least 2 trees and look after them till the end of their school.

India needs more people like you Mr. Payeng. The world would be a better place to live if all of us will think like you. Salute to your great vision and a story of persistence & determination.

His life has been subject of a lot of documentaries. You can watch it here.

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Article inputs from TOI & Wikipedia

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