14/03/2016
Kudos
Jadav ‘Molai’ Payeng belongs to the Mishing tribe of Jorhat district in Assam. Caught up with a strange obsession to plant trees on the sandbar since 1979 after the floods, near his birthplace in Assam, washed away large number of snakes ashore, he was determined to transform the barren land into a thick forest.
After receiving a negative response from the Forest Department, Jadav left his education and home and started living in isolation. He watered the plants morning and evening and pruned them. Moreover, he collected red ants from his village and transported them to the sandbar all by himself.
At the end, nature reciprocated and soon there was a variety of flora and fauna, including endangered animals like the one-horned rhino and Royal Bengal Tiger. However, it was only in 2008 when the Assam State Forest Department got to know about him and his miraculous work. By then, Jadav had planted a 1,360 acre forest single-handedly.
Jadav was honored at a public function arranged by the School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University on 22 April 2012 for his remarkable achievement. He shared his experience of creating a forest in an interactive session, where he was named the “Forest Man of India”. This year, he was honored with Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in India.