AT 16 HE PLANT A TREE. THE NEXT DAY ANOTHER, THEN ANOTHER AND ANOTHER.

 

 

 HE CONTINUED TO PLANT A TREE A DAY FOR 40 YEARS, AND TODAY WHAT WAS AN ARID AND SEMI-DESERT PLACE HAS TRANSFORMED INTO A 550-HECTARE FOREST.

Jadav Payeng was born in 1963 in Majuli, the largest river island in the world; he is part of the Indian tribe of Mising, in Assam. In 1979 on the banks of the Brahmaputra River he saw a large number of animals dying of hunger due to drought. In particular, on a large sandbank without trees, the excess heat killed hundreds of snakes.

Shocked and sorry, he planted about twenty bamboo seedlings in the arid soil. He then decides to plant a sapling every day, and starts with the easiest ones to grow, such as bamboo and black poplar. After a few months, the local authorities launch a reforestation program and Jadav starts working for them. The project lasts 5 years, after which he goes back to his job: he raises buffaloes and cows and sells their milk. And he continues to plant his trees.

People consider him a little crazy, but in 2007 a journalist accidentally discovers the “Forest Man of India” and tells his story. Jadav becomes a civil hero for the government and a model environmentalist at an international level.

Today he continues to live in his hut in the forest with his wife Binita and his 3 children, raises cattle and makes a living by selling milk; he recently received honorary doctorates from two universities. His trees have become the Molai Forest: the size of 800 football fields, it is home to rhinos, over 100 elephants, rabbits, monkeys, dozens of deer, wild boars, reptiles, several varieties of birds and even some Bengal tigers.

Payeng has lost count of the trees he has planted, but he estimates there are many, many thousands. “I didn’t do it alone,” he says. “Plant one or two trees and they will make seeds; then the wind knows how to plant them, the birds know how to sow them, the cows know, the elephants know, even the river knows. The entire ecosystem knows what to do and how to do it. I will continue to plant trees until my last breath. I hope to leave 2,000 hectares of forest.”


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