#majuli

The forest man of India

The Majuli Island in Assam is a river Island in the Brahmaputra basin. Infact, it the largest river Island on earth. It was a part of Jorhat district before becoming India's first and only island-district in 2016.

Decades of deforestation has resulted in land erosion on this island. In one century, the island has shrunk to one-third its original size.

Majuli is also home to Jadav Payeng, who over the past 40 years, transformed 1360 acres of the Island into a "man-made" forest! He started off in 1979 with 20 seedlings. Today, this forest is several thousand trees dense and houses Bengal tigers, rhinoceros, deer, rabbits, monkeys, elephants and several varieties of birds. Jadhav is aptly called the Forest man of India.

It all began, way back in 1979, because of floods and dead snakes. There in lies a tale!

As a child, Jadav would witness annual flooding of the Brahmaputra and the resultant damage to land and property. But one day, when he was 16 years old, he saw hundreds of snakes that were washed up during the floods, lying dead on the basin. They had died because of the earth's heat, once the water had dried up. There was no tree cover to provide the necessary cooling for these creatures.

Jadhav sat down and cried, wondering how the snakes must have felt before dying, and how much time remained before humans met with a similar fate.

He asked the tribal people in a nearby village what he should do. They told him to plant trees, bamboo in particular, since bamboo could best withstand the harsh conditions of the basin. They gave him 25 saplings and some seeds too. So, under the hot sun, Jadav started planting.

Later that year, the social forestry division of the neighbouring district launched a tree plantation scheme, a few kilometers away from his home. Jadav worked in this project for 5 years. Post its completion, while all others dispersed, he continued to tend to those trees as well as expanding his own "forest."

Some time along the way, locals recognized his love for the woods and nicknamed him "Molai" - which mean forest in the local dialect. They named the "one-man-made" forest on Majuli Island the Molai Forest.

Gradually, his forest attracted visitors. First the birds came, then animals came, then the snakes came. That's when he cried again - this time out of happiness.

Jadav proudly talks about the 100 elephants that visit the forest and live there for 6 months every year. Recently, some elephant cubs were born in Molai's forest. He felt like a proud father.

Jadav and his Molai forest were hidden from the world till 2008, when forest department officials went to the area in search of a herd of 115 elephants that had damaged property in a nearby village. The officials were surprised to see such a large and dense forest in that area.

But he really came to public limelight when Jorhat-based freelance journalist and wildlife photographer Jitu Kalita wrote about him in the Assamese newspaper The Dainik Janambhumi in 2010, leading to hundreds of stories in various publications in the years that followed, as well as numerous documentary films on him. 

Felicitations came in thick and quick. The Vice-Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University named him The Forest man of India. Jadav proudly cherishes his felicitation by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.

In 2015, the Government of India conferred to him the Padma Shri - the fourth highest civilian award.

But in his heart, Jadav Payeng seems most comfortable in the 1360-acre home that he built for himself, over 41 years, which he painstakingly keeps expanding, day by day. He says he will plant trees till his last breath.