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#Post#: 29-------------------------------------------------- |
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Inspiration Story |
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By: shadowman Date: March 10, 2013, 10:40 am |
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http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/indian-man-single… |
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Indian man single-handedly plants a 1,360-acre forest |
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Jadav Payeng turned a barren sandbar in northern India into a |
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lush new forest ecosystem. |
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A little more than 30 years ago, a teenager named Jadav "Molai" |
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Payeng began burying seeds along a barren sandbar near his |
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birthplace in northern India's Assam region to grow a refuge for |
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wildlife. Not long after, he decided to dedicate his life to |
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this endeavor, so he moved to the site where he could work |
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full-time creating a lush new forest ecosystem. Incredibly, the |
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spot today hosts a sprawling 1,360 acres of jungle that Payeng |
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planted � single-handedly. |
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The Times of India recently caught up with Payeng in his remote |
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forest lodge to learn more about how he came to leave such an |
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indelible mark on the landscape. |
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It all started way back in 1979, when floods washed a large |
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number of snakes ashore on the sandbar. One day, after the |
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waters had receded, Payeng, only 16 then, found the place dotted |
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with the dead reptiles. That was the turning point of his life. |
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"The snakes died in the heat, without any tree cover. I sat down |
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and wept over their lifeless forms. It was carnage. I alerted |
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the forest department and asked them if they could grow trees |
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there. They said nothing would grow there. Instead, they asked |
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me to try growing bamboo. It was painful, but I did it. There |
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was nobody to help me. Nobody was interested," says Payeng, now |
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47. |
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While it's taken years for Payeng's remarkable dedication to |
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planting to receive some well-deserved recognition |
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internationally, it didn't take long for wildlife in the region |
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to benefit from the manufactured forest. Demonstrating a keen |
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understanding of ecological balance, Payeng even transplanted |
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ants to his burgeoning ecosystem to bolster its natural harmony. |
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Soon the shadeless sandbar was transformed into a |
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self-functioning environment where a menagerie of creatures |
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could dwell. The forest, called the Molai woods, now serves as a |
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safe haven for numerous birds, deer, rhinos, tigers and |
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elephants � species increasingly at risk from habitat loss. |
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Despite the conspicuousness of Payeng's project, forestry |
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officials in the region first learned of this new forest in 2008 |
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� and since then they've come to recognize his efforts as truly |
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remarkable, but perhaps not enough. |
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"We're amazed at Payeng," says Gunin Saikia, assistant |
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conservator of Forests. "He has been at it for 30 years. Had he |
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been in any other country, he would have been made a hero." |
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Copyright Treehugger 2012 |
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incredible story! |
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