Shri Jadav "Molai" Payeng, born on October 31, 1959, is a green activist who is famous for his excellent reforestation work in Assam, India. Nicknamed as the "Forest Man of India," Payeng devoted his life to raising barren sandbars along the Brahmaputra river into a full-fledged forest habitat. He worked for decades planting trees and ultimately established the extensive Molai forest, which covers around 1,360 acres near Jorhat. Jadav Payeng has received many honours for contributions other than the Padma Shri. In 2012, he was invited by the School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, to speak about his forest project there. His work was recognized in 2013 at the Indian Institute of Forest Management.

Jadav Payeng belongs to the Mising tribe, which is one of the Assam's indigenous tribal groups. The Mising people have historically settled along riverbanks and enjoy a close relationship with nature, typically agrarian lifestyles interwoven with the ecosystem. Their traditional agricultural expertise and sustainable use of forests have impacted Payeng's own ecological methodology. Further, honorary doctorates have been conferred on Payeng by Assam Agricultural University and Kaziranga University. Each honour he has received represents a celebration of the achievements of one man in local forest conservation and of the importance of the local initiatives to global environmental conservation.

In 2015, Jadav Payeng was conferred with the illustrious Padma Shri, the fourth highest award conferred by the Government of India, for his relentless work in the field of environment conservation. His achievement of converting a barren sandbar to a thick forest became a matter of national praise, with the award highlighting the value of one person's devotion towards environmental conservation. Payeng's Padma Shri award not only celebrates his life's work but also encourages hundreds of others in India and worldwide to join reforestation and conservation efforts, proving the difference that can be made through grassroots initiatives on a worldwide scale.

Jadav Payeng with his efforts that today have had an intense ecological effect converting an entirely eroded, barren site into a lively forest ecosystem that sustains a lot of biodiversity. The Molai forest today is a home to various wild animals, like Elephants and Tigers and Rhinos, and scores of different bird species, creating a sanctuary balancing the region with its ecosystem. Concerted efforts in reforestation by him have also shown the way toward environmental sustainability to the mind of many and have inspired numerous afforestation projects all over the nation. Payeng is now a figure of hope in conserving the environment through re-establishing balance in this ecologically vulnerable area.