It’s not every day that someone can say they have managed to plant an entire forest. Yet this extraordinary man was able to do the unheard of. National Geographic helped tell his beautiful and inspiring story.

When he was a teenager, Jadav “Molai” Payeng knew that he wanted to help mother nature — this was over 30 years ago at this point. So to help, he decided to start planting trees.

Payeng was born in the Assam region in India. He decided to plant the tree seeds near there, next to a deserted sandbar.

Basically, he knew people were cutting down trees, so he wanted to oppose that. He wanted to create a new environment for wildlife to live in — something that was his and that others could not touch.

“I started planting this forest in 1979,” Payeng told National Geographic. “At first, planting was very time consuming but now it’s much easier, because I get the seeds from the trees themselves.”

The forest clocks in at about 550 hectares. To put that into perspective, Central Park in New York City is 341 hectares.

If you aren’t sure how big Central Park is, we can tell you it’s pretty big! So the fact that Payeng was able to create a forest that is over 200 hectares larger than the park is extremely impressive. Undoubtedly an enormous feat.

The forest is also dense. It is the home to 115 elephants, who live there for three months a year. Additionally, there are rhinos, deers, and according to the man, “many tigers.” Oh my!

So after fulfilling such a triumphant goal, you think this man would be satisfied. After all, it did take him over 30 years of his life — not something that many people can attest to!

However, Payeng is nowhere near done. 30 years down, what’s another 30? It’s obvious that he is now dedicating his entire life to creating better conditions in the outdoors and combatting climate change in any way that he can.

He shares that is next dream is to fill up Majuli Island and Jorhat with forest again.

“I will continue to plant until my last breath,” he adds.

And we believe him when he says that. Someone who has already dedicated most of their life to planting is not going to suddenly give up now, and we are so excited to follow the planter on his journey. It is people like him who are not just saying but doing. He is taking action and making a true, positive change to this planet.

“I tell people, cutting those trees will get you nothing,” he says. “Cut me before you cut my trees!”

When looking at footage of the forest he built, it is almost impossible to wrap your head around the idea that a single human created that on their own.

The video, which shows the man in his forest, exploded on the Internet and currently has 18 million views. It has sparked nothing but beautiful comments from others too, who are looking to follow in Payeng’s footsteps. We’re so happy he is inspiring others with his good work.

Check out the clip below.

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Source: National Geographic / Shareably