Molai, also known as Jadav Payeng, is a committed environmental and forest activist and wildlife enthusiast from Kokilamukh in Jorhat, Assam. Over several decades, he has planted and tended for trees on the sandbar islet of Aruna Chapori, which lies between the mainland and the river island Majuli, transforming a vast area into a forest reserve since 1980. Jadav Payeng’s sprawling Molai Kathoni (Molai’s Woods) is now a thriving habitat to a large number of birds, animals and insects, including deers, tigers, rhinos, Asiatic buffaloes, monkeys, vultures, snakes, and more. The Molai Reserve, which covers approximately 550 hectares, is home to thousands of trees and more than 100 species of medicinal plants.

Molai, who leads a very simple life, always leaves the house at four in the morning and rides his bicycle into the forest. After crossing the river by boat, he rides his bicycle through the forest to tend to the trees. He believes that plants should not only be planted, but also carefully cultivated, and their properties understood. He is spreading the message of love for nature both in his home country and throughout the world. Jadav Payeng known as the ‘Forest Man of India’ was honoured with the title by Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2012, and was invited to give lectures on environmental issues in many countries throughout the world. In 2015, he was honoured with the Padma Shri Award, the fourth highest civilian award in India, and the 128th Commonwealth Points of Light Award in 2020, for his outstanding contributions to environmental conservation.

In 2020, the story of ‘Forest Man’ Jadav Payeng made its way into textbooks in the United States. Notably, the Mexican government even granted Payeng a ten-year visa to embark on a mission to make the country greener by replenishing its forests, with the goal of planting seven million trees, in the year 2021. Jadav Payeng has been awarded honorary doctorate degrees from Assam Agricultural University and Kaziranga University for his extraordinary contributions.

In the documentary, Molai describes in depth how planting trees can help to mitigate global warming. He also said that learning to love nature will solve all of our problems