Since 1979, Jadav Payeng, a Mishing tribe environmental activist and forestry worker from Jorhat, India, has been planting hundreds of trees on an Indian island threatened by erosion. Through his amazing efforts and dedication to save his island, he has turned a sandbar on the Brahmaputra river into a forest reserve named Molai forest in his honor. The area encompasses about 1,360 acres (2.125 square miles).
The story of Payeng's journey to restoring a forested area begins when he was about 16 and noticed a large number of snakes had died on the sandbar due to excessive heat and flooding, causing massive erosion. He first started working on the forest in 1979 when he was a laborer with the social forestry divison of the Golaghat District.
The project's main goal was to plant 200 hectares of trees, and was completed after five years. Following its completion, however, Payeng decided to continue the planting of trees in order to transform the sandbar into a lush forest.
As the days, years, and eventual decades passed, Payeng's dedication to creating the forest became noticed at first by the animals, with Bengal tigers, Indian rhinoceros, and over 100 deer calling the forest their home. Also home to apes, several varieties of birds, and a large number of vultures, Molai forest is also home to a herd of about 100 elephants that usually stay for about six months.
Since he began, his forest has become larger than Central Park, and it definitely makes an impact. With many referring to him as Forest Man, Payeng's extraordinary dedication to expanding and maintaining Molai forest is an amazing feat in today's time. Not only is he making an impact on the area where he plants the trees, but also on the world as he shows that anyone can make a difference.
To watch a short film on Jadev Payeng's efforts to combat erosion along the Brahmaputra river, click here. In the film, photographer Jitu Kalita explores Payeng's home, and reveals the story of how this modern-day Johnny Appleseed turned an eroding desert into a wondrous oasis.
