The Forest Man of India

October 26, 2014 9:12 AM

How one person singlehandedly created a forest, saved an island, and changed the world.

After the other workers left, nominally going on to other things, Payeng stayed behind, continuing to plant more trees, and taking care of the forest. To date, he’s personally restored more than 550 hectares (1,360 acres) of forest, or an area some 50% larger than New York’s Central Park.


Bonus short documentary.

posted by Johnny Wallflower (8 comments total)

I love this sort of thing, and kudos to Payeng.

One thing I hate about mankind and about capitalism is that both are generally innocuous and even helpful at the micro scale, but are destructive and completely lacking in foresight at the macro scale.

The island was already disappearing, this man largely saved it, and now the first thing others want to do is cut the mature trees down to make a few dollars. It's like the very few remaining old growth trees in the PNW. Some people always argue that they should be harvested (to "save the local economy"). And then what? You get a few dollars, once, and then an irreplaceable thing is gone and the "economy" is still in the shitter.

If we had a universal income, I could totally see people doing this sort of work everywhere.
posted by maxwelton at 10:46 AM on October 26, 2014 [5 favorites]

I was in Jorhat city and have seen floods as well. It is sad that he wont get the support that he needs to save the island. Now that we have new PM, Mr. Modi, things may change. As for now, to show our support we can post this video on Facebook, Twitter etc to make it viral. These medias have lot of effect:)
posted by meswtypie at 10:49 AM on October 26, 2014

Amazing story. We are all too ignorant about the important role of forests for our existence.
posted by mumimor at 10:53 AM on October 26, 2014

Shows how capitalism is a failure. This guy should be a millionaire because that is the kind of value he creates (not in resource extracting but other ways). There should thousands like him all over the world, and there would be if capitalism properly valued things. Carbon pricing would be one step in that direction.
posted by stbalbach at 1:23 PM on October 26, 2014 [3 favorites]

Does anyone know what he's doing to the tree from 14:11 to 14:25?
posted by eggkeeper at 4:46 PM on October 26, 2014

Thanks. Nice post.
posted by salad at 6:30 PM on October 26, 2014

Does anyone know what he's doing to the tree from 14:11 to 14:25?

Grafting?
posted by Dip Flash at 6:35 PM on October 26, 2014

It is fine and fitting that the greatest monument to Mr. Payeng will be the island that his graciousness, care, time, and work has has saved.
posted by PROD_TPSL at 9:39 AM on October 27, 2014