The Forest Man Of India
In 1979, Payeng, then 16, encountered a large number of reptiles that had died after floods washed them onto the tree-less sandbar. [7] He started working on the forest in 1980 when the social forestry division of Golaghat district launched a scheme of tree plantation on 200 hectares at Aruna Chapori situated at a distance of 5 km from Kokilamukh in Jorhat district . Molai was one of the labourers who worked in that project which was completed after five years. He chose to stay back after the completion of the project even after other workers left. He not only looked after the plants, but continued to plant more trees on his own, in an effort to transform the area into a forest. The forest, which came to be known as Molai forest, now houses Bengal tigers , Indian rhinoceros , over 100 deer and rabbits besides apes and several varieties of birds, including a large number of vultures. [6] There are several thousand trees, including va...