r/todayilearned • u/[deleted] • 4d ago
Repost: Removed [ Removed by moderator ]
[removed]
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u/BrokenKamera 4d ago
Reminds me of that man who dug a way through a rocky hill using only a hammer and a chisel. It took him 22 years. They even made a movie about it.
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u/cosmoscrazy 4d ago edited 4d ago
There was a rocky mountain near his village that people either had to climb across or travel round to gain access to medical care at the nearest town Wazirganj. One day Manjhi's wife (when pregnant) fell while trying to cross the mountain and eventually died giving birth to a girl, after which Manjhi decided to carve a road through it. When he started hammering the hill people called him a lunatic but that only steeled his resolve further. After 22 years of back-breaking labour, Manjhi carved a path 360 feet long, 25 feet deep in places and 30 feet wide.
Manjhi died in 2007. The film's postscript states that 52 years after he started breaking the mountain, 30 years after he finished and 4 years after his death the government finally made a metalled road to Gehlaur in 2011. He fought with the Indian government for the development of their village and for the availability of hospitals and road
Based dude.
Honestly, I understand him. Some things only change because one guy or gal gets so upset with how shitty things are that they take it upon themselves to fix the problem, because nobody else will.
I'm secretly planting trees as well by the way. If you come across a few "wild" cherry trees for example while wandering somewhere in valleys in West Germany, think of me 😉
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u/itissafedownstairs 4d ago
Why did you link to the 'mountain' wiki?
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u/pheonixblade9 3d ago
Gustav Cherryseed over here
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u/cosmoscrazy 3d ago
huh?
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u/pheonixblade9 3d ago
johnny appleseed is an american folk hero known for planting many thousands of apple trees across the country.
in reality, people planted apple trees to make alcohol and because of weird land grant laws which made it so they could just take land if they planted fruit trees on it.
https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/thing/timber-culture-act-1873
also, a lot of orchards were maintained by indigenous populations, and white people did white people shit.
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u/cosmoscrazy 2d ago
It's sad to see and hear what they did to the indigenous people. So much knowledge and worth lost. Potatoes, tomatoes, chocolate and corn are essential foods today. Imagine how many more amazing things we could have learned if we didn't murder all those smart people.
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u/pheonixblade9 2d ago
we replaced the 3 sisters with mutant Monsanto nonsense.
I'm pro-GMO to be clear - GMOs have saved hundreds of millions of lives (golden rice is a huge one) - it's more around the overuse of fertilizer instead of properly rotating crops symbiotically.
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u/Lucas_Steinwalker 4d ago
Was that guy married?
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u/Double_Dragonfruit6 4d ago
He was but his wife died because of the lack of a good route to a hospital, which is why he dug the tunnel, so that would never happen to anyone in his home town again.
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u/eltictac 4d ago
Seems to be a popular hobby
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u/BrokenKamera 3d ago
Hmm, interesting!
Speaking of caves, I'm still amazed how they were able to cut through granite in some of those Barbar caves.
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u/kapaipiekai 4d ago
There are few forces in nature as powerful as a random Indian guy on a mission. Look up Dashreth Manjhi for details.
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u/Tiny-Eye693 4d ago
he started at 16 after watching snakes die from the heat on the bare sandbar. the forestry department didn't even know the forest existed until a herd of elephants wandered in decades later
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u/Sussurator 4d ago
The only thing I don’t understand is that if it was barren and too hot for snake how did he get the trees to establish?!
I’ve planted a tree in my back garden in Ireland, green everywhere and rain more often than not and I can’t get the thing to properly take off.
Does this guy have a podcast or something?
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u/Quality-hour 4d ago
Understanding the turn of seasons, using local native plants, and careful cultivation would've likely been the basics
There's also understanding soil composition, which is a whole other tin of worms
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u/atxbigfoot 4d ago
Check out crime pays but botany doesn't on yt
His newer videos are in South and West Texas (brutal desert and scrub lands) and he talks a lot about how to regrow native habitats using specific native plants that grow quickly as the foundation and planting around them to protect them from the sun/weather.
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u/canman7373 4d ago
You can grow plants and trees in the desert, there is still soil under the sand, just takes a bit more work to do it and needs to be certain kinds plants plants and tress. Trees that can go a long time without water and when it rains store it for a long time, deeply rooted. Their roots begin to displace the sand and bring the soil to the surface so more plants and trees can grow turning a desert into a forest. It ain't easy and takes a lot of time and work like this man did. But he is not the only person to bring a forest to a desert, many people have and many are doing it now.
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u/LesbianLoki 4d ago
What does his marital status have to do with anything 😋
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u/KingNobit 4d ago
You may have heard the saying Behind every great man is a great woman...except the full saying is actually:
Behind every great man is a great woman, except for Jadav Payeng who did it all by himself
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u/RunnyPlease 4d ago
“I am here to plant trees and find a wife… and I have plenty of trees left.” - Jadev Payeng
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u/Aduialion 4d ago
“I am here to plant trees and find a wife… and deforestation is a major issue.” - Jadev Payeng
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u/shun_tak 4d ago
I think they meant he did it all by himself. The dude is married with 3 children....if that matters to you
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u/LesbianLoki 4d ago
If it matters to you, the emoji signifies tongue in cheek humor... Meaning it was a joke
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u/HanzTermiplator 4d ago
No thats the wrong emoji, this is the correct one😜
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u/BrokenKamera 4d ago
The poster actually used the yummy yum yum emoji on purpose to highlight the fact they fancy the dude.
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u/zipiddydooda 4d ago
He wrote the post and he’s looking for a single lady who is really into elephants.
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u/stupid_sane 4d ago
Because there’s a saying “paudhe lagao, dil nahi”
Meaning, “plant trees, not heart” 😂5
u/Nah_Id__Win 4d ago
It could be his dating profile, like those old VHS tapes or Tinder. But potential partners will know he has dedication, commitment, and a green thumb.
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u/brandoldme 4d ago
One man can make a difference, Michael.
In all seriousness I've thought if we all started doing one nice thing everyday, the world would almost instantly change. That could be planting a tree, picking up a piece of garbage, holding the door for somebody, whatever. Just do one more good thing or nice thing than you already do. 8 billion people doing that would have a massive impact.
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u/sonic_dick 4d ago
Many people do multiple nice things a day for strangers. In fact, id imagine most people do.
Unfortunately holding a door doesnt really make a difference in the world when like 1,000 people basically control everything about our lives.
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u/Smittumi 4d ago
Yeah, we all do kindnesses. And we'd naturally do more of we had time. The issue isn't human nature, it's the economic system we have.
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u/Marsdreamer 4d ago
Local changes can make big differences.
Start a community garden. Plant a tree. Pick up trash at your local park. Anything you can do. Holding a door open is nice, sure, but it's not building a difference in your community. It's easy to say nothing can be done or nothing can make a difference -- But actions do matter. Elon Musk doesn't impact your neighborhood as much as you could, if you wanted to.
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u/fued 4d ago
Yep if one rich guy decides he wants this forest gone, it will undo the 40y of work in a year
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u/sonic_dick 2d ago
Everyone should read about former Washington Redskins owner, Daniel Snyder. He cut down protected trees in a National Park in DC because they blocked his view of the Potomic River from his mansion.
He was happy to pay the fine until an NPS Ranger went after him. Danny boy got the poor guy fired. To a billionaire, paying a 500k fine is nothing. Dude should be in jail.
This isnt even getting into his sex trafficking of his teams cheerleaders. He is an awful man.
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u/zefy_zef 4d ago
That's the way I see karma. If you do a good thing for someone, they're more likely to want to do something good for someone else.
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u/cocoagiant 4d ago
In an interview from 2012, he revealed that he has lost around 100 of his cows and buffaloes to the tigers in the forest, but blames the people who carry out large scale encroachment and destruction of forests as the root cause of the plight of wild animals
Wow, you pretty much never see that attitude from farmers.
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u/Easy-Ninja669 4d ago
How did he have so many trees to plant?
(EDIT because I couldn't resist): it's not like trees grow on trees!
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u/Steel_Rail_Blues 4d ago
It’s refreshing to learn about the good some people are doing. Thank you for some a nice read to wrap up my day with and cheers to Jadav Payeng. 🍻
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u/BenchConscious1003 4d ago
I like to have my convictions challenged. This time it's the notion that a single person can't make a difference.
On the face of it, this bloke did something truly astounding.
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u/JiminyJilickers-79 4d ago
Man, we could have done such great things to this world.
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u/leaderofstars 4d ago
But then the shareholders wouldn't be able to make even more money off the back of us poors
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u/Genoblade1394 4d ago
I didn’t know a single tree could be replanted every day for so many years he could’ve just left it on a planter
jk
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u/MyPigWhistles 4d ago
I've no idea how big central park is. What's that in football fields?
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u/axitanull 4d ago
I think it's at least the size of 20 elephants, I don't know, I only speak the metric system
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u/lev_lafayette 4d ago
Kind of took the "be the change you want to see", quite literally, eh?
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u/Forward-Ladder6157 4d ago
No wonder he is still single .. he is always planting trees
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u/Inferno474 4d ago
If you judging only by the title, ut only means he did it alone, not that he is in no relationship at all, besides the trees.
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u/chins4tw 4d ago
Wiki doesn't really get into it. Is the forest at a point where it will sustain itself or will it end up degrading and disappearing if people stop maintaining it?
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u/EponymousTitus 4d ago
This raises so many questions.
Why only 1 tree a day?
Where did he get them from?
Did he mix up the species?
Whose land is it? At this size there could be multiple owners: what are their intentions for the land? Did he ask them? Do they care?
How is he watering all of these trees to get them going? As this goes on presumably he is travelling further and further from his starting point.
Why didnt he involve anyone else?
Did no one else notice?
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u/Inferno474 3d ago
These are fair questions, and they’re exactly why "just plant trees" is too simple. In this case it seems he started with bamboo and local saplings on a Brahmaputra sandbar, then kept tending the area until it became partly self-sustaining. The "one tree a day" line is probably a simplified viral version rather than an audited planting schedule. But the broader point stands, good reforestation depends on land rights, native species, local ecology, aftercare, and whether that land should become forest in the first place.
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u/bdash1990 4d ago
He only planted one tree a day?
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u/mort-or-amour 4d ago
If he planted one tree a day, that’s 14,600 trees in the 40 years he spent cultivating that forest. Not to mention the trees eventually start spreading their own seeds that also start to grow.
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u/Willemboom00 4d ago
Depending on how young the trees he's planting are it could cost a pretty penny and take a fair amount of work to plant and water. If he's still working full time that's a lot of time and money dedicated to just planting one tree a day.
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u/sovietarmyfan 4d ago
If every person planted a tree every day we would have a much better planet.
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u/Inferno474 4d ago
Good idea in principle, but good tree planting is more complicated than putting any tree anywhere. The species, location, local ecosystem, aftercare, and whether the land should even become forest all matter. Done badly, it can mean monocultures, invasive species, low survival rates, or damage to grasslands and wetlands. Mossy Earth’s approach for example, is closer to the right idea: restore native habitats, plant native trees where they naturally belong, and focus on the whole ecosystem rather than just the tree count.
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u/whatisboom 4d ago
Planting trees isn't really a good strategy, but if there is a full ecosystem growing beneath them, then it's okay
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u/dougiedonut_uk 4d ago
Why mention he's single? Don't you think he gets enough grief culturally without this being global news now?
Just glad they didn't delve into if he was a 40 year old virgin...
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u/Inferno474 4d ago
I think "single man" here means one man doing it alone, not his relationship status. "One man" or "single-handedly" would have avoided the ambiguity.
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4d ago edited 4d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/TheRealMoofoo 4d ago
Eh, one of the most famous elements of one of the world’s most famous cities doesn’t seem like a completely insane reference point.
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u/Maleficent-Agent-477 4d ago
Big ass park in New York City
Here’s a pic: https://cdn.sanity.io/images/nxpteyfv/goguides/bc7b59a234cb1e26623f44d0d2ea535fc239ffda-1600x1067.jpg
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u/sonic_dick 4d ago edited 4d ago
The one thats the most famous in the world, located in one of the most well known cities in the world. The one featured in countless movies, television shows, songs and the one literally EVERYONE thinks of when they say "Central Park".
You know, that one?
Thats like saying "Baghdad??? Wtf, the one in Iraq or Florida??? Paris? Which one???"
Lmao youre from Georgia. The US STATE of Georgia has 3x the population of the entire country of Georgia. You're really shocked that the US has a larger worldwide cultural impact?
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u/Maleficent-Agent-477 4d ago edited 4d ago
“His efforts became known to the authorities in 2008, when forest department officials went to the area in search of 115 elephants that had retreated into the forest… The officials were surprised to see such a large and dense forest.”
The most impressive part of this to me is that it took 30 years for authorities to discover that this guy just grew a forest…