"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. Nature has made a food chain; why can't we stick to it? Who would protect these animals if we, as superior beings, start hunting them?" - Jadav Molai Payeng, who single-handedly created a 1360 acre forest."
A little more than 30 years ago, a teenager named Jadav "Molai" Payeng began burying seeds along a barren sandbar near his birthplace in northern India's 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 acres of jungle that Payeng planted — single-handedly.
The Times of India recently caught up with Payeng in his remote forest lodge to learn more about how he came to leave such an indelible mark on the landscape.
It all started way back in 1979, when floods washed a large number of snakes ashore on the sandbar. One day, after the waters had receded, Payeng, only 16 then, found the place dotted with the dead reptiles. That was the turning point of his life.
Profile Of Jadav Payeng :
Jadav Payeng (Assamese: যাদৱ পায়েং) is an environmental activist and forestry worker from Jorhat, Assam, India.[16] He upgraded a chapori of the river Brahmaputra to a reserve forest. The name of the forest is Mulai Reserve (Mulai is his nickname), it is located near Kokilamukh of Jorhat, Assam, India. Total area of the forest is about 1000 hectares.
Career
Payeng started his journey of plantation in 1979. He started working on the forest in 1980 when the social forestry division of Golaghat districtlaunched a scheme of tree plantation on 200 hectares at Aruna Chapori situated at a distance of five km from Kokilamukh in Jorhat district. Mulai was one of the labourers who worked in that project which was completed after five years. He chose to stay back after the completion of the project as others left. He not only looked after the plants, but continued to plant more trees on his own effort slowly transforming the area into a big forest.
The forest, now known in Assamese as Mulai Kathoni or Mulai forest, houses around four tigers, three rhinoceros, over a hundred deer and rabbits besides apes and innumerable varieties of birds, including a large number of vultures. There are several thousand trees among which are valcol, arjun, ejar, goldmohur, koroi, moj and himolu. There are bamboo trees too covering an area of over 300 hectares.
A herd of around 100 elephants regularly visits the forest every year and generally stay for around six months. They also gave birth to 10 calves in the forest in recent times.
His efforts came into lime light during 2008 when forest department officials went to the area in search of a herd of 115 elephants that sneaked into the forest after damaging property of villagers at Aruna chapori, around 1.5 km from the forest. The officials were surprised to see such a large and dense forest and since then the department is showing interest on conservation with regular visit to the site.
A few years back, poachers tried to kill the rhinos staying in the forest but failed in their attempt due to Mulai who alerted department officials. Officials promptly seized various articles used by the poachers to trap the animals.
Mulai is ready to manage the forest in a better way and to go to other places of the state to start a similar venture. Now his aim is to spread his forest to Bongoan of Majuli
Personal life
Jadav Payeng lives in a small hut in the forest with his family. Binita, his wife and his 3 children (two sons and a daughter) accompany him. His only source of income is through selling milk, he has good number of cows and buffaloes in his farm and sell the milk for his livelihood. In a recent interview he revealed that he lost around 100s of cows and buffaloes to the Tigers in the forest, but blames the people who carry out large scale encroachment and destruction of forests as the root cause of the plight of wild animals
Recognition
Not only tourists are flocking to the woods in droves, a famous British film-maker Tom Robert went there two years back to shoot one of his films.
Honour
Jadav Payeng was honoured at a public function arranged by the School of Environmenal Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University on 22nd April, 2012 for his remarkable achievement. He shared his experience of creating a forest in an interactive session, where Magsaysay Award winner Rajendra Singh and JNU vice-chancellor Sudhir Kumar Sopory were present. Sopory named Jadav Payeng as "Forest Man of India
Jadav Payeng ,Lakho Lakho salam to you.
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