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 Brahmaputra River 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, which was displayed at 2014 Cannes Film Festival.

References

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