Thirty seven years ago a 16 year-old boy named Jadav “Molai” Payeng planted a couple dozen bamboo seedlings in the ground o his home island of Majuli, in Assam, India. The world’s largest river island, Majuli was essentially a huge sandbar covered in wetlands that was eroding fast. With each passing year the surrounding river ate away at its banks and it was shrinking quickly in size.
Jadav had originally been motivated to plant the bamboo trees there after he had come across a bunch of snakes that had died from excessive heat exposure. Heavy flooding had stranded them on the tree-less sandbar and so he decided to plant the seedlings in hopes of providing a little shade for those who might need it. Soon afterwards he started working for a division of the social forestry program and over the next five years he planted more trees on the island as part of a government reforestation project. When that came to an end in 1984 all of the forestry workers left, everyone that is except for Jadav.
He chose to stay behind and spent the the rest of his life planting trees on the island. From that day back in 1979 all the way up and through now, he’d head out into nature and plant new ones. His drive was relentless and soon there was a thriving jungle on the island. In fact he planted so many trees, over 550 hectares of them, that the resulting Molai forest was even named after him!
Today the forest is larger than Manhattan’s Central Park and many rare species of animals and birds have returned. Endangered Bengal tigers, Indian rhinoceros, apes, birds, deer, a species of vulture not seen on the island in over 40 years, and 110+ elephants live there. Erosion has also slowed significantly because the tree roots help to fortify the island against the river and the annual floods that it brings.
In the end there is a wise lesson that can be learned from his endeavors. If you simply give a little each day, and dedicate your time and effort to a worthy cause, it will all come back to you ten-fold in both obvious and mysterious ways. So check out the video to see Mr. Payeng in action and catch a glimpse of his forest and please help spread his inspirational story and pass it on to your friends and family, they’ll love it!
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