The Forest Man of India, Jadav Payeng is all set to visit Mexico to help the nation regenerate its forests. He will be collaborating with Fundacion Azteca, a non-profit in Mexico that promotes social responsibility towards the environment.
The Forest Man signed the agreement at Ciudad de Las Ideas (CDI), an annual international initiative of brilliant minds, at Puebla City in the presence of Dr. Andres Roemer, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, Ninfa Salinas Sada, a former senator and daughter of the founder of the Salinas group, and naturalist Rituraj Phukan.
The Mexican government tweeted that they were honored to host the extraordinary environmentalist and mentioned that he alone had planted 40M trees. His association with Fundacion Azteca will help in planting trees across Mexico.
Senator Sada also tweeted that it was an incredible achievement for the Forest Man to have planted 40 million trees while they at Fundacion Azteca have managed just 7 million.
The Forest Man has Devoted His Life To His Forest
Forest Man has devoted more than 4 decades to single-handedly creating a forest on Majuli, the largest inhabited riverine island in the world on the Brahmaputra river. He began at the tender age of 16 after watching hundreds of snakes killed in a drought back in the 1970s. The forest is named the ‘Molai Kathoni’ or the Molai reserve in his honor.
Located close to Kokilamukh in Jorhat district in the North-eastern Indian state of Assam, the forest covers an area of around 550 hectares (1360 acres) It is home to more than a hundred bird species. A large herd of around a hundred elephants stays in the forest for around 3 months every year. Tigers and deers also inhabit the forest.
Jawaharlal Nehru University conferred the title “Forest Man of India” on Jadav Payeng in 2012. He was honored with the Padma Shri, one of India’s highest civilian awards, in 2015.
Read: India’s Forest Man: Reforestation Hero Jadav Payeng Alone Reforested 550 Hectares Of Barren Land
The Forest Man said that the initiative by the Mexicans would help create an enormous plantation that would help create 800,000 hectares of forest cover in Mexico. Jadav Payeng has been granted a visa for 10 years by the government in Mexico.
He is set to visit Mexico in September 2021 and will be staying for 3 months each year between September and November. It is an ideal time for plantations in the country in Latin American. He will be involved with around 100,000 students in Mexico and assist in the plantation drive.
