Man Has Spent 40 Years Planting A Tree Every Day On A Desolate Island

A man who dedicated his life to planting a tree every single day has single-handedly created a forest larger than New York's Central Park.

Only those with truly green fingers will understand how much dedication it takes to tend to even an average sized lawn.

So imagine the amount of effort required to put together a 1,360-acre forest on a barren wasteland, as is the normal state of the land on Majuli island in India, the largest river island in the world.

That is where Jadav Payeng began his quest to improve the landscape and the environment around him when he planted his first tree in 1979, aged just 16.

Now in his 50s, Payeng has created an entire forest ecosystem, much larger than the 840-acre Central Park in New York, which is home to tigers, rhino, vultures and 115 elephants - and he doesn't plan to stop any time soon.

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Payeng, who makes money with his wife by selling cow's milk to local villages, said he will continue to plant seeds and saplings until his 'last breath'.

Incredibly, Payeng's unbelievable feat was only noticed by the wider world in 2007, nearly 30 years after he began planting trees, when an unsuspecting photo journalist and wildlife enthusiast called Jitu Kalita stumbled across his vast creation.

In his documentary about Payeng, 'Forest Man', which has over 2.7m views on YouTube, Kalita said: "I saw something strange... it looked like a forest far in the distance.

"I began walking towards it and when I reached it I couldn't believe my eyes. I had found a dense forest in the middle of a barren wasteland."

Payeng, who wakes up everyday at 3am before taking a boat and bike ride to his forest, said he first thought Kalita was a poacher searching for tigers or rhino, but Kalita stayed with Payeng to learn about his life's work. Once his story was picked up by the national papers, Payeng was labelled the 'Forest Man of India'.

Scientists have hailed Payeng's example as one that everyone should follow and in 2015 he was awarded a Padma Shri civilian award by the Indian government.

Payeng said: "Humans consume everything until there is nothing left. Nothing is safe from humans, not even tigers or elephants.

"I tell people, cutting those trees will get you nothing. Cut me before you cut my trees."

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He added that the lifestyle he enjoys is blissful and free of stress, much different to people living in the cities.

"Things are different in concrete forests (cities). Those people sit in air conditioned rooms unmindful of the pollution created outside.

"People are fighting with each other, people here don't fight. They do their work, eat their food, breath oxygen and live in peace."

Despite this, he is thankful for the attention his forest has brought him and he even remembers the location of his first planted tree, which is now huge and strong with a thick trunk.

Patting the tree's trunk, he said: "Without you, I would not have seen the outside world."

Topics: Environment, World News, News, India

Nathan Standley

Nathan Standley is a freelance journalist and LADBible contributor. He graduated from Durham University with a degree in Anthropology before going on to do a Master’s degree in Journalism at the University of Sheffield. He also writes articles for The Versed and is the Cultural Editor of The Common Sense Network.