Known as the Forest Man of India, Payeng has spent the last 42 years of his life turning a barren 550 hectare sandbar, Aruna Sapori, on the river Brahmaputra, in India, into a green forest. From the time he started at 16 years of age, he is responsible for planting and tending 40 million trees and counting.
Now 65 years old, the Forest Man of India was given the title by the Indian government on World Earth Day in 2010 for his life's work. He began planting trees after graduating grade 10 and returning home to find dead snakes on a deserted sandbar. Local villagers gave him 50 seeds and 25 bamboo plants and so began his life's work. Now a dense forest that attracts many animals - elephants, tigers and rhino - along with all manner of local fauna. He humbly says:
“IT'S NOT AS IF I DID IT ALONE. YOU PLANT ONE OR TWO TREES, AND THEY HAVE TO SEED. AND ONCE THEY SEED, THE WIND KNOWS HOW TO PLANT THEM, THE BIRDS HERE KNOW HOW TO SOW THEM, COWS KNOW, ELEPHANTS KNOW, EVEN THE BRAHMAPUTRA RIVER KNOWS. THE ENTIRE ECOSYSTEM KNOWS.”
His work was made into a documentary in 2014 and is currently in the can as the base for a new movie due out mid 2021.
Payeng, known as Molai, told The Hindu:
“PEOPLE WANT TO KNOW MY STORY. I TELL THEM I JUST PLANT TREES, AND I’D LIKE ALL OF YOU TO DO SO. TREES ARE THE LIFELINE OF THE FOREST. THEY DON’T JUST GIVE US SHADE AND OXYGEN. THEY FEED BIRDS AND ANIMALS AND BALANCE OUR ECO SYSTEM. IF THERE IS NO LIFE LEFT, WHAT IS THE USE OF ALL THE ADVANCEMENTS WE HAVE MADE?”
Payeng now collaborates all over the world. In December 2020, he signed an agreement with Fundacion Azteca, a Mexican non-profit to collaborate and help them build their environmental works program.