Happy Birthday to the ‘Forest man of India’! Take a sneak peek to Jadav Payeng’s incredible journey

• Image Credit: Google

• Oct 31, 2022 | Guriya Khatun

In his teenage, Payeng encountered a large number of snakes that had died due to excessive heat after floods washed them onto the tree-less sandbar. 

Digital Desk: Happy Birthday to Jadav 'Molai' Payeng, the Forest man of India who has grown a forest on a barren land by planting trees for around 40 years. The forest called ‘Molai’ forest after him is located near Kokilamukh of Jorhat, Assam, India and encompasses an area of about 1,360 acres / 550 hectares.

Here is what encouraged him 

In his teenage, Payeng encountered a large number of snakes that had died due to excessive heat after floods washed them onto the tree-less sandbar. The incident shook him and he wanted to do something for the area. He planted around 20 bamboo seedlings on the sandbar.

To turn the space into a forest, he not only took care of the plants but also continued to plant new trees on his own.

Bengal tigers, Indian rhinoceroses, as well as more than 100 deer and rabbits, are currently living in the forest, which became known as the Molai forest. Monkeys and other bird species, such as numerous vultures, can be found in the Molai forest. There are several thousand trees, including the himolu, valcol, arjun (Terminalia arjuna), ejar (Lagerstroemia speciosa), goldmohur (Delonix regia), koroi (Albizia procera), and arjun (Terminalia arjuna) (Bombax ceiba). Over 300 hectares are covered in bamboo.

Personal Life 

Jadav Payeng belongs to the Mising tribe in Assam, India. He used to live in the house that he had constructed inside of his Forest, along with his wife and 3 children (a daughter and two sons). Jadav constructed a home in No. 1 Mishing Gaon, next to Kokilmukh Ghat, in 2012, and moved his family there. They have been in this home ever since. Jadav, though, makes a daily trip to his forest to care for the trees and plants. On his property, he keeps cattle and buffalo, and his sole source of income is milk sales.

Honours 

On April 22, 2012, Jadav Payeng was honoured for his accomplishments in a public event hosted by the School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University. In an interactive discussion with Magsaysay Award winner Rajendra Singh and JNU Vice-Chancellor Sudhir Kumar Sopory, he discussed his experience building a forest. Jadav Payeng was dubbed the "Forest Man of India" by Sopory. He received recognition in October 2013 at the Indian Institute of Forest Management's Coalescence annual event. He received the Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian honour, in 2015. As a result of his contributions, he was awarded honorary doctorates by Kaziranga University and Assam Agricultural University.