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The men who grew forests -Rahi Gaikwad
-The Hindu

City fetes Jadav Payeng and Abdul Kareem — men who built forests from scratch.

Mumbai: Leaders of nations the world over devote a large part of their time, money and policy framework to the growth of the economy. But if they held their breath for a minute, they would realise it is life-sustaining oxygen that needs their urgent attention.

At the recently-concluded Paris climate change conference, Jadav “Molai” Payeng, 52, known as the ‘Forest Man of India’ asked a simple question in his speech. “There were about 20,000 people at the conference and 150 speakers. I asked them, ‘We meet for the sake of economy, but what are we doing for oxygen? Only trees can give you oxygen.”

Speaking to The Hindu on Thursday, eve of the South Indian Education Society’s three-day Vana Mahotsavam festival, where he was awarded for his green initiative, he said he pinned his hopes on children to build a green tomorrow.

“There is no point in telling adults. We should teach children to plant trees from the primary school level. They should be given practical training. Schools should plant a sapling with every child they admit and increase this number gradually by the year. In 10 years, you will see a green India. Jungle is my life. It is your life too. People build temples, but no one has seen god. Nature is god,” he said.

He faulted World Environment Day celebrations for being mere photo ops. “We have been celebrating it since 1970. People plant saplings and then forget about it. The next year they come to the same spot and plant again.”

Mr. Payeng lives in a self-created forested island in Majuli — a vast sandbar on the banks of the Brahmaputra. A stretch of 1,360 acres, abounding in flora and fauna, the thick forest is impermeable to sound. His hut, where he stays with his family, is the only dwelling, with no human life for nearly seven kilometres. It took 36 long years for Mr. Payeng to build the forest. President Pranab Mukherjee presented Mr. Payeng the Padma Shri for his contribution to the environment on April 8 this year. The green journey of the forest man began in 1978, when floods ravaged his village in Jorhat.

“The floods washed away homes leaving behind sand. My parents migrated to another village, but I stayed behind. I went to school in the next village, where an agricultural scientist taught us to plant areca nut.”

A lot of snakes came into the open in the wake of the floods, but they died owing to the heat on the sandbar. “I thought the village too would die like the snakes,” said Mr. Payeng.

The idea to plant trees came following his interactions with the Deori community, which donated him 25 saplings to begin his afforestation mission. Over the years, he collected different types of seeds from adivasi groups and transported them on bullock carts and boats.

He sold milk to earn a living, but the forest sustained his needs. He only buys kerosene to burn the lamp, and salt and rice from the market. The jungle provides the rest of his supplies — papaya leaves, jackfruit, grass, a variety of roots, and ingredients to prepare ‘rice beer’. “Today, there are 120 varieties of trees and medicinal plants on the wetland, grassland and highland. The forest is home to Bengal tigers, rhinoceros, elephants, deer and rabbits,” said Jitu Kalita, a local journalist. Mr. Kalita was the one who first discovered the forest man in 2007 when first stumbled upon a lone hut in the forest. But Mr. Payeng tried to chase him away, thinking he was a poacher. Many environment enthusiasts the world over pay visits to study Mr. Payeng’s forest. Mr. Kalita’s made the first-ever documentary on Mr. Payeng — ‘Forest Man of India’ . Later, another documentary ‘Forest Man’ by William Douglas McMaster won the best documentary award at The American Pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival last year.

Abdul Kareem, a former businessman, was another green champion who was feted on Thursday. The 68-year-old forest man converted 32 acres of barren laterite rock hillside in Puliyamkulam in Kasargod, Kerala.

As a young man, Mr. Kareem drove a taxi in Mumbai in the late sixties, when the Bal Thackeray-led agitation against south Indians drove him back to Kerala. He returned to start a travel business, which made him a frequent flyer. “So I decided to purchase some land and build a house for rest and relaxation. I did not intend to build a forest initially,” he said.

The five acres he bought in 1977 had no water, no trees, no birds. In the next few years, he shut down his business and bought more land. He gave the work of planting trees to adivasis in the area, also giving them place to build their homes, creating a colony of 60 huts. “The adivasis know the trees. I am just an ordinary man,” he said.

Natural water reserves

Using soil and water conservation methods of digging rainwater catchpits, he built large reserves of pure natural water. “Trees hold water. My forest has four wells and three ponds. We have lakhs of litres of pure water. Bottled water has an expiry date. We have kept ours for years,” he said. Among the fauna are peacocks, forest hens, and wild pigs. Amidst soaring temperatures, Mr. Kareem’s oasis offers solace. “When it’s 40 degrees in Kochi, it is 20 degrees in my forest. If you offer me a White House or a Rashtrapati Bhavan, I will reject it,” he declared.

Mr. Kareem’s next project involves building cottages for those who wish to study the environment. To combat the impoverished environment of Mumbai and other cities, he said, “The solution is planting trees. Trees are the solution.”
 
The Hindu, 18 December, 2015, please click here to access