Padma Shri Jadav Payeng from Assam has now become a part of the school syllabus of a leading school in the United States.
Payeng’s four-decade-long feat of single-handedly raising a 550-acre forest of barren sandbar will now grace the curriculum of sixth grade Bristol Connecticut school students, in what will be the latest laurel for the 57-year-old Assamese farmer.
“The students are studying about Padma Shri Jadav Payeng as a part of their ecology lesson,” Navamee Sharma, a teacher at Greene Hills School in Bristol Connecticut, told DH on Sunday. “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.”
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.
Earlier, Payeng was featured in viral footage by popular video blogger Nas Daily in social media.
