One Indonesian Man Manages To Stop Drought And Bring Fortune To His Village By Planting 11,000 Trees

Mind Unleashed

A rural countryside in Indonesia has one man to thank for saving their drought-prone village. 65-year old Pak Sadiman is a local farmer and father of two who lives in Gendol Hill, which has been plagued by years of horrible logging and deforestation.

Over a span of 19 years, Sadiman took it upon himself to plant trees and rehabilitate the area in order to turn his village’s issues around after so many years of being mismanaged. Glendol Hill, which is found on the border of Central and East Java provinces in Indonesia, has been ravaged by deforestation from the year 1960 up until 1980. Because of this, the Glendol River, which is also the village’s water source, was under threat. The deforestation forced the river to dry up, as well as other water sources like the nearby streams and lakes, which meant that the village residents lost most of their water access as well.

When Sadiman first began encouraging his fellow villagers to plant trees, they thought he was crazy. But these days, they’ve changed their view of him and now refer to him as “mbah” or “grandfather” out of respect for the work he has done over the past 24 years, attempting to return their barren hills to their former lush glory.


Sadiman told Reuters, “I thought to myself, if I don’t plant banyan tress, this area would become dry. In my experience, banyan trees and ficus trees can store a lot of water.”

What’s more admirable is the fact that he used his own money to buy the tree seedlings, which he planted on the hill unassisted. He explained, “I found out that many rubber trees no longer produced rubber latex. Then I realized that the water crisis was too extreme. Even the tree trunks had dried up.”

“Unlike rubber trees that absorb groundwater, banyan trees can retain groundwater. The more banyan trees planted means, the more villagers will get clean water,” he added.

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Despite doing all the replanting efforts on his own, Sadiman knew that he still required the support of his co-residents to make sure he could continue with his work. But the problem was that in the beginning, they didn’t believe in what he was doing and they thought he was just wasting his time.

In fact, there were a number of superstitious villagers that even mocked him for the work he was doing. Sadiman shared, “People ridiculed me for brining banyan tree seeds to the village, because they felt uneasy as they believed there are spirits in these trees.”

According to Warto, a resident from a neighboring village, he even said that there were rumors that Sadiman was a lunatic since he had been seen bartering goats for tree saplings. Thankfully, Sadiman didn’t allow their negativity to deter him, explaining, “I just wanted to see the village with reliable water sources again.”

In a little less than two decades, Sadiman managed to plant over 11,000 banyan and ficus trees in a 617-acre space to lessen the erosion in the land. Because of what he’s done, the trees have grown, water has come back, and he has brought abundance and prosperity to his village and neighbors by giving them access to water in their homes and their properties.


Warto also said, “In the past people thought he was crazy, but look at the result now. He is able to provide clean water to meet the needs of the people in several villages.”

Although he couldn’t remember how many trees he planted over 19 years, data from Geneng subdistrict office was the one that shared that it was indeed 11,000 trees, including 4,000 banyan trees planted over 10 hectares of land. While 30 subdistricts in the Wongori region suffer from the water crisis, Geneng has impressively been one of the few subdistricts tha is mostly unaffected by the dry season.

Because of what Sadiman has done, the village now has at least two to three harvests annually, rather than just one a year. Sadiman also expressed, “I hope the people here can have prosperous lives and live happily. And don’t burn the forest over and over again.”

After such amazing results, Sadiman now has more support from his co-residents. While some help him plant trees on the hills, others help with the costs by providing free seedlings to plant. According to Sadiman, they still need to grow another 200,000 more trees to continue to stop any possible water deficits within the area.

Sadiman is a true eco warrior, if there ever was one. And amazingly, he has even promised, “I won’t stop planting trees as long as I’m still physically fit to do that.”

 

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