The Forest Maker (Had he been in any other country, he would have been made a hero)

This is the real life story of man named Jadav Payeng from Assam. He has single-handedly grown a sprawling forest on a 550-hectare sandbar in the middle of the Brahmaputra!

The forest now houses many endangered animals, including at least five tigers, one of which bore two cubs recently.The place lies in Jorhat, some 350 km away from Guwahati. Local people call the place 'Molai Kathoni' (Molai's woods) after Payeng's pet name, Molai.

Payeng's story goes back in 1979 when floods washed a large number of snakes ashore on the sandbar. When waters had receded, Payeng who was only 16 years at the time, found the place dotted with the dead reptiles which became the turning point of his life. "The snakes died in the heat, without any tree cover. I sat down and wept over their lifeless forms. It was carnage . I alerted the forest department and asked them if they could grow trees there. They said nothing would grow there. Instead, they asked me to try growing bamboo. It was painful, but I did it. There was nobody to help me. Nobody was interested," says Payeng, now 47. 

Soon he started living on the sandbar. He watered the plants morning and evening and pruned them. After a few years, the sandbar was transformed into a bamboo thicket."I then decided to grow proper trees. I collected and planted them. I also transported red ants from my village, and was stung many times. Red ants change the soil's properties . That was an experience," Payeng says, laughing.

Soon, there were a variety of flora and fauna which burst in the sandbar, including endangered animals like the one-horned rhino and Royal Bengal tiger.The Assam state forest department learnt about Payeng's forest only in 2008 when a herd of some 100 wild elephants strayed into it after a marauding spree in villages nearby. They also destroyed Payeng's hutment . It was then that assistant conservator of forests Gunin Saikia met Payeng for the first time.

"We were surprised to find such a dense forest on the sandbar. Locals, whose homes had been destroyed by the pachyderms, wanted to cut down the forest, but Payeng dared them to kill him instead. He treats the trees and animals like his own children. Seeing this, we, too, decided to pitch in," says Saikia. "We're amazed at Payeng. He has been at it for 30 years. Had he been in any other country, he would have been made a hero."

-(The Times of India)