The forest, called the Molai woods, is a safe haven for numerous birds, deer, rhinos, tigers and elephants. The 1,360-acre jungle in India's Assam region got its start a little more than three decades ago in a markable way: a teenager single-handedly planted it seed by seed. (Photo : PhBasumata / flickr)

A sprawling 1,360-acre jungle in India's Assam region got its start a little more than three decades ago in a markable way: a teenager single-handedly planted it seed by seed.

When he was a teenager, Jadav "Molai" Payeng began burying seeds along a barren sandbar near his hometown in India's north, Mother Nature News reports.

Payeng got the idea in 1979 when a flood washed a large number of snakes on to the sandbar.

"The snakes died in the heat, without any tree cover. I sat down and wept over their lifeless forms. It was carnage. I alerted the forest department and asked them if they could grow trees there. They said nothing would grow there. Instead, they asked me to try growing bamboo. It was painful, but I did it. There was nobody to help me. Nobody was interested," said Payeng, now 47.

While Payeng's labors did not begin to receive much attention until recently, the local ecosystem has long benefited from his good deed. The forest, called the Molai woods, has become a haven for birds, deer, rhino, tigers and elephants, MNN reports.

The region's forestry officials didn't learn of the new forest -- or the Payeng's labor of love -- until 2008, when reports of wild elephants trampling through caught their attention.

"We were surprised to find such a dense forest on the sandbar. Locals, whose homes had been destroyed by the pachyderms, wanted to cut down the forest, but Payeng dared them to kill him instead. He treats the trees and animals like his own children. Seeing this, we, too, decided to pitch in," said Gunin Saikia, assistant conservator of Forests, according to the Times of India. "We're amazed at Payeng. He has been at it for 30 years. Had he been in any other country, he would have been made a hero."