Molai forest

Molai forest
Forest
Molai forest Molai forest (Assam)
Country	India
Part of	India
City	Jorhat
River	Brahmaputra
Highest point
- coordinates	26°51′0″N 94°9′8″E / 26.85000°N 94.15222°E / 26.85000; 94.15222

Molai forest is a forest in Kokilamukh, Jorhat district, Assam, India.

Molai forest is named after Jadav "Molai" Payeng Indian environmental activist and forestry worker. The forest was single-handedly planted by Payeng in a timespan of 30 years and encompasses an area of about 1,360 acres / 550 hectares.^[1] Payeng planted and tended trees on a sandbar of the river Brahmaputra turning it into a forest reserve.

Molai forest now houses Bengal tigers, Indian rhinoceros, over 100 deer and rabbits besides apes and several varieties of birds, including a large number of vultures.^[1] There are several thousand trees, including valcol, arjun (Terminalia arjuna), ejar (Lagerstroemia speciosa), goldmohur (Delonix regia), koroi (Albizia procera), moj (Archidendron bigeminum) and himolu (Bombax ceiba). Bamboo covers an area of over 300 hectares.^[2]

A herd of around 100 elephants regularly visits the forest every year and generally stays for around six months. They have given birth to 10 calves in the forest in recent years.^[2]

Molai forest was featured in a 2013 documentary Foresting life,^[3] directed by the Indian documentary filmmaker Aarti Shrivastava.^[4]

Molai forest and Jadav "Molai" Payeng have been featured in William Douglas McMaster's 2013 film documentary Forest Man.^[5] People have pledged 8,327 USD on the Kickstarter campaign^[6] for the post-production of this documentary in early 2013. Documentary will be displayed at 2014 Cannes Film Festival.

References