We all have dreams in our lives. Some people
try to find the true meaning in their lives and follow their gut feeling even
though the whole world seems to be kicking
them backwards. And others just go with the flow. But as a child were you
curious and thought about making changes to the causes around you. When you
were a child the thoughts would wander around having cookies, playing games with
friends and finish the homework before you sleep. That’s because our parents
used to take care of everything. But
what would have happened if you witnessed the death of animals due to
floods and decided to act upon it. Well Jadav Payeng just did that.
He knew the absence of tree cover caused all
this calamity. The sole aim of Jadav was
to make the planet greener. Thus he tried seeking the help of village elders,
but they just laughed and avoided him. Upon trying to contact the forest
department officials mocked him, saying to plant the trees himself ( but he
took it serious and actually started planting trees). For three decades he
continued to plant saplings.
 |
| Jadav Payeng |
Payeng found a riverine island on the banks of
Brahmaputra and began to plant saplings. But watering the plants was an issue
as the area proved to be vast for one individual. So he came up with a plan, to
build a bamboo platform on the top of each sapling and placed an earthen pot
with small holes in it. The water would slowly drip on the plants and needed to
be refilled only after one week.In 1980 payeng started helping in the society
of Golghat district, which involved tree plantation on 200 hectares. It was a 5
year project and even after the
completion of the project he chose to stay back and continue to plant trees in
an effort to transform the area into a forest. He lives with a family in a
small hut in the forest. He has won numerous awards and is known as the forest
man of India.
Presently it has grown into 1360 acres of
jungle called Molai forest. And now its
home to Bengal tigers, Indian rhinoceros ,apes and several varieties of
birds etc.
Payeng is a simple human being who had dreams
and worked hard to accomplish it. We all have dreams
But the question remains, is How much effort are you willing to take to
achieve it???
Abraham Maslow once said In any given moment we have two options: To step forward into
growth or step back into safety. Well,
Jadav chose to step forward. Will you?
