{"id":23844,"date":"2013-03-06T07:04:26","date_gmt":"2013-03-06T13:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.drishtikone.com\/?p=23844"},"modified":"2013-03-06T07:04:26","modified_gmt":"2013-03-06T13:04:26","slug":"how-one-man-in-assam-single-handedly-planted-an-entire-forest-in-30-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/drishtikone\/2013\/03\/how-one-man-in-assam-single-handedly-planted-an-entire-forest-in-30-years\/","title":{"rendered":"How one man in Assam single-handedly planted an entire forest in 30 years!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Sometimes, one man can change the world.\u00a0 Through small but consistent effort.\u00a0 The story of Jadav Payeng, the Molai Forest Man, is one such story.\u00a0 He started well over 30 years ago single-handedly and has created a forest where there was sand.\u00a0 Spiritual people talk about compassion, and this young kid at that time demonstrated the compassion that was his inherent quality.\u00a0 This compassion made him do what most people will consider Super Human.<\/p>\n

It was 1979 and floods had washed a great number of snakes onto the sandbar. When Payeng \u2014 then only 16 \u2014 found them, they had all died.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe snakes died in the heat, without any tree cover. I sat down and wept over their lifeless forms,\u201d Payeng told the Times Of India<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt 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,\u201d he told the newspaper. (link<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A little over 30 years ago, a teenager named Jadav \u201cMolai\u201d Payeng began burying seeds along a barren sandbar near his birthplace in northern India\u2019s Assam region to grow a refuge for wildlife. Not long after, he decided to dedicate his life to this endeavor, so he moved to the site where he could work full-time creating a lush new forest ecosystem. Incredibly, the spot today hosts a sprawling 1,360 acre of jungle that Payeng planted single-handedly. The forest, called the Molai woods \u2013 after its creator \u2013\u00a0 now serves as a safe haven for numerous birds, deers, rhinos, tigers, and elephants \u2014 species increasingly at risk from habitat loss elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\"Sunlighy<\/a>
Sunlight shines in the Molai forest<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Payeng lives in the forest with his wife and three kids and earns his living by selling cow and buffalo milk.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re amazed at Payeng,\u201d says Assistant Conservator of Forests, Gunin Saikia. \u201cHe has been at it for 30 years. Had he been in any other country, he would have been made a hero.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Enhanced<\/a><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes, one man can change the world.\u00a0 Through small but consistent effort.\u00a0 The story of Jadav Payeng, the Molai Forest Man, is one such story.\u00a0 He started well over 30 years ago single-handedly and has created a forest where there was sand.\u00a0 Spiritual people talk about compassion, and this young kid at that time demonstrated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1517,"featured_media":23845,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[396,1301,4872,1777,1915,2304,3153,3472],"class_list":["post-23844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","tag-assam","tag-forest","tag-india","tag-jadav-payeng","tag-kaziranga-national-park","tag-molai","tag-shoal","tag-times_of_india"],"yoast_head":"\nHow one man in Assam single-handedly planted an entire forest in 30 years!<\/title>\n<meta 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