permaculture

["Mitch Triplett" <mtriplett@bctonline.com>]

It's a great story, but the single-handedness is questionable.  As Asian Age
reported...

"...Mulai was one of the labourers who worked in our project which was
completed after five years. He chose to stay back after the completion of
the project as others left."

http://www.asianage.com/india/man-creates-forest-single-handedly-brahmaputra
-sand-bar-972


Mitch Triplett
Tri-Pearl Family Forest
Member - CCFFA/OSWA & OTFS
Associate Member - FSC


-----Original Message-----
From: permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of dylanford
Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2012 7:58 PM
To: permaculture
Subject: [permaculture] The Man Who Made A Forest

The Man Who Made A Forest

  Manimugdha S Sharma, TNN Apr 1, 2012

 
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-04-01/special-report/312696
49_1_forest-wild-elephants-red-ants

  Way back in 1953, French author Jean Giono wrote the epic tale The Man Who
Planted Trees. It seemed so real that readers thought the central character,
Elzeard Bouffier , was a living individual until the author clarified he had
created the person only to make his readers fall in love with trees. Assam's
Jadav Payeng has never heard of Giono's book. But he could be Bouffier. He
has single-handedly grown a sprawling forest on a 550-hectare sandbar in the
middle of the Brahmaputra. It now has many endangered animals, including at
least five tigers, one of which bore two cubs recently.

  The place lies in Jorhat, some 350 km from Guwahati by road, and it wasn't
easy for Sunday Times to access him. At one point on the stretch, a smaller
road has to be taken for some 30 km to reach the riverbank. There, if one is
lucky, boatmen will ferry you across to the north bank. A trek of another 7
km will then land you near Payeng's door. Locals call the place 'Molai
Kathoni' (Molai's woods) after Payeng's pet name, Molai.
  It all started way back in 1979 when floods washed a large number of
snakes ashore on the sandbar. One day, after the waters had receded, Payeng
, only 16 then, found the place dotted with the dead reptiles. That was the
turning point of his life.

  "The snakes died in the heat, without any tree cover. I sat down and wept
over their lifeless forms. It was carnage . I alerted the forest department
and asked them if they could grow trees there. They said nothing would grow
there. Instead, they asked me to try growing bamboo. It was painful, but I
did it. There was nobody to help me. Nobody was interested," says Payeng,
now 47.

  Leaving his education and home, he started living on the sandbar. Unlike
Robinson Crusoe, Payeng willingly accepted a life of isolation. And no, he
had no Man Friday. He watered the plants morning and evening and pruned
them. After a few years, the sandbar was transformed into a bamboo thicket.
"I then decided to grow proper trees. I collected and planted them. I also
transported red ants from my village, and was stung many times. Red ants
change the soil's properties . That was an experience," Payeng says,
laughing.

  Soon, there were a variety of flora and fauna which burst in the sandbar,
including endangered animals like the one-horned rhino and Royal Bengal
tiger. "After 12 years, we've seen vultures. Migratory birds, too, have
started flocking here. Deer and cattle have attracted predators," claims
Payeng . He says locals recently killed a rhino which was seen in his forest
at another forest in Sibsagar district.

  Payeng talks like a trained conservationist. "Nature has made a food
chain; why can't we stick to it? Who would protect these animals if we, as
superior beings, start hunting them?"

  The Assam state forest department learnt about Payeng's forest only in
2008 when a herd of some 100 wild elephants strayed into it after a
marauding spree in villages nearby. They also destroyed Payeng's hutment .
It was then that assistant conservator of forests Gunin Saikia met Payeng
for the first time.

  "We were surprised to find such a dense forest on the sandbar. Locals,
whose homes had been destroyed by the pachyderms, wanted to cut down the
forest, but Payeng dared them to kill him instead. He treats the trees and
animals like his own children. Seeing this, we, too, decided to pitch in,"
says Saikia. "We're amazed at Payeng. He has been at it for 30 years. Had he
been in any other country, he would have been made a hero."

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