Padma Shri Jadav Payeng from Assam has now become a part of the school syllabus of a leading school in the United States. The awe-inspiring story of Jadav Payeng, “The Forest Man of India” will now grace the pages of school books in the Greene Hills School in Bristol, Connecticut in the USA. The school dedicated a chapter on the awe-inspiring story of  how the Padma Shri recipient has transformed a 550-acre barren sandbar of the Brahmaputra in Majuli into a thriving forest.

“The students are studying about Padma Shri Jadav Payeng as a part of their ecology lesson. The primary reason was to inspire and encourage future generations of the country on how a single person can make a huge positive impact in the world if he or she has the right attitude and determination,” Navami Sharma, a teacher of the school said.

Payeng has dedicated nearly 42 years of his life taking care of the Molai woods – a forested area spread over 550 hectares of land. It is located along a barren sandbar of Majuli, the world’s largest river island in Assam, about 28 kilometers from Jorhat town. ‘Molai Forest’ (named after the 57-year-old environmental activist), which continues to grow till date, is near Kokilamukh of Jorhat and now home to various species of plants and animals.