He stayed

In 2008, a forest department team came to a sandbar at Aruna Chapori, in Jorhat, on the Brahmaputra. Crop damage had brought them. They were tracking elephants, a herd of about one hundred to one hundred fifteen. Assistant Conservator of Forests Gunin Saikia was with the team.

They walked into a dense forest. The department did not know the forest was there.

"We were surprised to find such a dense forest on the sandbar."

The hutment was gone. Elephants had destroyed it. Locals whose homes were hit wanted the forest cut. Saikia’s team pitched in.

Jadav Payeng was of the Mising community. In 1980 he had been a labourer on a state plantation scheme of about 200 hectares.

"Mulai was one of the labourers who worked in our project which was completed after five years. He chose to stay back after the completion of the project as others left."

His house is five or six kilometres off the forest, in Kokilamukh. He crosses by boat. He often stays days in a hut in the forest.

Earthen pots sat on bamboo platforms, punctured so the water trickled for about a week. There were cattle and buffalo, and milk.

Tarun Taye has lived at Aruna Chapori since 1999. He is of the Mising community. He keeps cattle there.

"Without the forest it would have been very difficult for us to keep cattle and survive here because earlier it was a mere sandbar. The forest Payeng has planted benefits the whole community."

The forest is reported as about 550 hectares.

His wife, Binita, milks in the morning. By 8 a.m. the family has milked. Then she rows a canoe to Mekahi.