MAHADEV MAHTO-Environmentalist of the year

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MAHADEV MAHTO (Environmentalist of the year, nature lover, the Jungle man of Hazaribag)..

Some 25 Kms from Hazaribag, a man lives called, Mahadev Mahto-Village-Berho, Tatijhariya. And the jungle created by his effort 'Dudhmatiya Jungle'.

The savior of the forest and cutting of trees has made the forest at Dudhamatiya a place for research for National Geographic channel and people from round the globe.

By profession Mahadev Mahto was a school teacher and joined the school in the year 1975 and retired in 2014.Through out his teaching career he gave time, money and love to save the forest and cutting of trees to create a conducive environment for wild animals to dwell.His consistent effort to protect the jungle has become so fruitfull, that the balance which got disturbed came to it's original state.

Starting from 700 trees at 30 acres of land to 1 lac trees these days in the span of 21 years needs high regards for him.

How he made it possible and why he chose this work ?

While talking to him he recited an old story and shared his feelings with us- An encounter with wild Elephants.

Way back in 1987, more 20 wild elephants entered into his village, and all the villagers gathered there to witness the plight of wild elephants.Mahadev Mahto says that when elephants got angry all villagers ran away(200 in numbers) and he got stuck by some plants and fell down, somehow he managed to get back to his home getting bruishes in his face and hurt badly( some villagers thought Mahadev mahto has died).

After this incident he gave a deep thought about why wild animals are entering into villages? so from there only he decided to create natural habitat for these wild animals to stop them from entering into villages.

He started working relentlessly and growing trees, but people did not came to support him,An idea came in his mind and , he wanted to link the sentiments of the people with the jungle. In Hindu tradition Raksha Bandhan is festival where, brothers protect their sister. Similarly, Mahadev ji asked people to 'Raksha Bandhan' the trees by tying the trunk of the tree with a 'Red Ribbon' and protect it. So on 7th of October he started the movement of Rakhsa Bandhan' of trees from 'Dudhmatiya JUngle' and since then he never looked back.Every year on 7th of October, there used to be an environment mela in Dudhmatiya jungle where people adopt one village and do Raksha Bandhan to save it till the end of life.Every year Mahadev ji selects different jungle and do Raksha Bandhan.Dudhmatiya Jungle is situated in NH-100, 25 Kms from Hazaribag on the way towards Bagodar-Dhnabad-Kolkata.

Here are some of the photographs of 'Dudhmatiya JUngle, Mahadev Mahto...

Watch the video interview of Mahadev ji at Youtube Channel "Humans of Jharkhand