The Boy Who Grew A Forest by Sophia Gholz

A young boy lived on a large river island with his family and other families. He began to notice that with each rainy season more and more of his island home was lost to the rising river. His tree covered island was gradually being replaced by empty sandbars where nothing could live. Sometimes he saw animals trapped on the sandbars.

The boy told the village about what he saw and how the homes for the animals were being destroyed. The villagers told him that the way to save the animals was to give them new homes. To help him, they gave him twenty bamboo saplings.

He went to a large sandbar, too sandy for leafy trees to grow and planted all the saplings. Every day he faithfully watered the saplings, an exhausting task for a young boy. But soon the bamboo saplings grew into a bamboo thicket. To enrich the soil he brought in cow manure, earthworms and other living things to help the soil. The boy brought in new seeds from neighbouring villages and planted them. As the years passed and the boy grew up, a wonderful transformation occurred on the once empty sandbar.

A forest covering forty acres, filled with water buffalo, rhinoceros, gibbons, elephants, snakes and birds had grown on the once barren sandbar. When problems occurred such as the appearance of dangerous tigers in the forest, the boy who had now grown into a man found a solution. That amazing boy was Jadav Payeng.

Discussion

The Boy Who Grew A Forest tells the true story of Jadav Payeng. Jadav was born into the Mising tribe in Assam, India. In 1979, Jadav saw many snakes stranded on a large sandbar on Majuli Island which is located on the Brahmaputra River in Assam, India. The snakes were dying as there was no where for them to nest.

Every year during the monsoon rains the Brahmaputra River floods, resulting in severe erosion of its banks and Majuli Island, the largest river island in the world. The erosion which continues today, is so serious that scientists believe the island will disappear entirely unless action is taken .

Majuli Island, Assam India

In 1980, the Golaghat District forestry division began planting trees on two hundred hectares at Aruna Chapori. Jadav Peyand was part of this project. In 1983, when it was decided to terminate the project, Jadav decided to stay on, caring for those trees already planted and continued to plant more.

The result of his efforts is a forest named Molai, after Jadav Peyang that is now home to many varieties of trees including valcol, arjun, cotton trees, moj, silk trees as well as bamboo. The forest has attracted a variety of wildlife including Indian rhinoceros', Bengal tigers, deer, rabbits, monkeys and many different types of birds. The government of India first learned of Jadav's forest in 2008 when a small herd of elephants they were looking for, were discovered to have wandered into the area. The elephants have returned every year, staying for about six months to give birth to their young. Today Jadav, his wife Binita and their three children live in the forest. Jadav believes it is possible to save Majuli Island by the extensive planting of coconut trees. These trees would halt erosion and also provide some economic return for the over one hundred thousand people who live on the island. It would also direct them away from illegal and harmful activities like poaching.

The Boy Who Grew A Forest, tells Jadav's story in a straightforward manner capturing his determination and commitment to the reforestation of a small part of Majuli Island. Gholz's retelling is a bit misleading in that Jadav was not a young boy when he began planting trees (as shown in the picture book), but in fact a teenager of sixteen. Nevertheless, Gholz's portrayal highlights his determination to rehabilitate the Majuli Island ecosystem and and demonstrates that all of us have our own part to play in keeping our planet healthy.

Rejuvenation of the area was not without its own problems. The trees were in danger of being exploited by men who wanted to cut them down. The rhinoceros and tigers were in danger from poachers. Each problem was met head on  by Jadav and resolved; people who came to cut the trees were turned away, poachers captured by government officials.

Accompanying Gholz's text are the rich earthy illustrations of Kayla Harren in golden yellows, browns and greens, emphasizing the natural beauty of the Molai forest and its wildlife.

The Boy Who Grew A Forest is a natural fit as a debut picture book for Sophia Gholz whose father was a forest ecologist.It highlights the idea that everyone of us has a part to play in keeping our planet healthy. Children interested in the natural world will find Jadav's story encouraging and fascinating. They might find a short documentary made about Jadav Payeng, titled Forest Man to be interesting viewing. This documentary was made by Jitu Kalita, a wildlife photographer who discovered Molai forest and Jadav while scouting out new areas to film.

Majuli Island Map credit: http://www.indpaedia.com/ind/index.php/Majuli 

Book Details:

The Boy Who Grew A Forest by Sophis Gholz
Ann Arbor, MI: Sleeping Bear Press     2019