Archive · 25 Aug 2026
Jadav Payeng Turns a Barren Sandbar Into Forest
When Jadav Payeng was 16, he visited a bare piece of land in the Brahmaputra River.
He saw many snakes that had died after floods carried them there.
The snakes had no trees to protect them from the hot sun.
People told Jadav that the land could not be saved.
He decided to plant seedlings there anyway.
He planted them one at a time for many years.
His work eventually created a forest bigger than New York’s Central Park.
India now calls him the “Forest Man.”
In 1979, 16-year-old Jadav Payeng found hundreds of dead snakes on a barren Brahmaputra sandbar.
Floods had washed the snakes ashore, where they died under the hot sun without trees for shelter.
After elders said little could be done, Payeng began planting seedlings one at a time.
Nearly half a century later, his forest is larger than New York’s Central Park.
India now calls Payeng the “Forest Man.”
- Who
- Jadav Payeng, who was 16 when he began planting seedlings.
- What
- He planted seedlings on a barren sandbar and created a forest larger than New York’s Central Park.
- When
- He began in 1979; nearly half a century later, the forest had grown substantially.
- Where
- On a sandbar in the Brahmaputra River.
- Why
- He wanted to prevent the kind of tree-free, sun-related deaths that killed hundreds of snakes there.
- Name
- Jadav Payeng
- Nickname
- The Forest Man
- Starting year
- 1979
- Age when he began
- 16
- Location
- A sandbar in the Brahmaputra
- Forest size
- Larger than New York’s Central Park
- Planting method
- One seedling at a time