It is the power of responsibility that a man transforms wasteland into the dense forest

Floods come with untold suffering and immense miseries to the people. Their belongings are washed away. Houses collapse and people are rendered homeless. Many men, women, children and cattle are swept away by the current of the river. Floods destroy crops standing in the fields and cause famine. They also cause epidemics. Many people lose their resources and tools and thus lose their occupation. It is a very pitiable sight to see cattle being washed away by the current of the river during the floods.

But the most scary & nasty scene appears, when  waters all around  receded, reptiles which came with water at the time of floods, now starts dying in absence of their shelter.

A little more than 30 years ago, way back in 1979 in Assam, floods washed a large number of reptiles ashore on the sandbar. One day, after the waters had receded, a 16 year old teenager named Jadav "Molai" Payeng found the place dotted with the dead reptiles all over. The snakes died because of the heat, without any tree cover.  He sat down and wept over their lifeless forms. It was carnage.

He alerted the forest department and to avoid such occurrence from next year onwards, asked them if they could grow trees. They said nothing would grow there. There was nobody to help him. Nobody was interested. It was painful but seeing the situation he has taken the responsibility to grow trees in this area. he decided to dedicate his life to this endeavour, so he moved to the site so he could work full-time creating a lush new forest ecosystem.

He started growing bamboo in that place. He planted around 20 bamboo seedlings on the sandbar. He continued to plant more trees on his own. With his effort and dedication he transforms that place into the forest. Incredibly, the spot today hosts a sprawling 1,360 acres of jungle that Payeng planted- single-handedly.

The forest, which came to be known as Molai forest, now houses Bengal tigers, Indian rhinoceros, and over 100 deer and rabbits. Molai forest is also home to monkeys and several varieties of birds, including a large number of vultures. A herd of around 100 elephants regularly visits the forest every year and generally stay for around six months. They have given birth to 10 calves in the forest in recent years.Now there are several thousand trees, including valcol, arjun (Terminalia arjuna), ejar (Lagerstroemia speciosa), goldmohur (Delonix regia), koroi (Albizia procera), moj (Archidendron bigeminum) and himolu (Bombax ceiba)and Bambo all over the place.

For almost 30 years, off everyone’s radar, without support or subsidies, without fear or favour, without Forest Department or foreign hand, Payeng, almost obsessively, continued to expand the forest and the fruit of his labour is now being celebrated around the world. It is indeed amazing that his extraordinary mission was largely unknown until  2008, when forest department officials went to the area in search of a herd of 115 elephants that had retreated into the forest after damaging property in the village of Aruna Chapori, which is about 1.5 km from the forest. The officials were surprised to see such a large and dense forest and since then the department has regularly visited the site.

Jadav Payeng was honoured at a public function arranged by the School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University on 22 April 2012 for his remarkable achievement. He was honoured at Indian Institute of Forest Management during their annual event Coalescence. In 2015, he was honoured with Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in India.

It is the power of responsibility that a man transforms wasteland into the dense forest.You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end, each of us must work for his own improvement and, at the same time, share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful