95 2 Earth under pressure changes. Payeng had seen his island home slowly being eroded by floods. These floods have become increasingly common thanks to the glacier melt, and increasingly unpredictable thanks to the monsoons. Each flood strips the island of valuable topsoil, and Majuli Island has lost almost half of its landmass since the 1950s. Since 1990, 35 villages have been washed away, and breeding grounds for birds and other animals are either gone or in danger. To try to stop his home from disappearing completely, Payeng began an “erosion improvement plan” – although he just calls it “planting trees”. In 1979, when he was sixteen, Payeng planted one tree. Since then, he has kept at it, planting another tree every day. Today, he has a forest measuring 1400 acres, or 5.66 km2. Payeng explains the impact his efforts have had on animal numbers: “Since it is a dense forest, 115 elephants live here for three months a year. In my forest, there are also deer, rhinos and many tigers. After 40 years, we have also seen vultures return to this area.” Majuli Island needed this change. Now the to erode – eyðast increasingly – sífellt meira unpredictable – ófyrirsjáanlegur topsoil – efsta jarðlag a breeding ground – varpland to measure – mæla dense – þéttur a deer – hjörtur a vulture – hræfugl Majuli Island continuously loses its soil to the river Brahmaputra, in India.
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