Moving mountains for his children’s future, replication of ‘Mountain Man’

We all know the story of Dashrath Manjhi, the ‘Mountain Man’ who carved up an entire mountain in Bihar for 22 straight years so that people could reach the doctor in time. While Dashrath made a road of 360 feet, in what looks like a replication of this story, Jalandhar Nayak carved up a mountain in Odisha and a built a road stretching up to eight kilometers.

Nayak worked for eight hours every single day for two years in an attempt to connect his village Gumsahi to the main road in the nearby town Phulbani. Nayak is 45 years old and what compelled him towards the carving up was seeing his three sons struggle through the hills to cross them so that they could reach school.

Nayak worked for eight hours every day for two years to construct the road which connected his village Gumsahi with the main road in Phulbani town of Odisha’s Kandhamal district.

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Nayak took the step so that his children could easily cross the road to reach school in the town

Meanwhile, S K Jena, the Block Development Officer (BDO), assured that he would provide all the facilities to Nayak.

“It is almost an inhabitable area where he lives, we had earlier invited him to come and live in the city but he refused. Our support is there for him, whether he will be felicitated or not has not been decided yet,” he added.

Nayak, a vegetable seller, said that he never had access to education and seeing his children suffer in crossing the area forced him to take this step and clear the hillocks to make a pathway.

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His family is the only one residing in the area as rest of the people living in the village had shifted to other places because of the difficult terrain.

Several news stories came out in the local newspapers that talked about Nayak’s work but it had been out of the light only until the district collector invited him over to her office and appreciated him for his work. With the road construction already on track thanks to Nayak, the collector had instructed the Block Development Officer (BDO) of Phulbani to finish everything up by gathering laborers and the necessary resources. The collector even offered to provide Nayak with the necessary financial support.

Not just that, Nayak made sure that not a single tree was cut down in this process.