Man Who Moved a Mountain

Dashrath Manjhi – The Man Who Moved a Mountain

Dashrath Manjhi  was born into a poor labourer family in Gahlour village near Gaya in Bihar, India. His wife fell ill one day and ultimately died because the hospital was too far away. Why? Because there was an enormous mountain between his village and the hospital.

So he spent the next 22 years of his life digging through the mountain… literally “moving mountains” for the rest of the village so that no one would face the same fate as his wife.

He carved a path 360-foot-long (110 m) through-cut, 25-foot-deep (7.6 m) in places and 30-foot-wide (9.1 m) to form a road through a mountain in the Gehlour hills, working day and night for 22 years from 1960 to 1982. His feat reduced the distance between the Atri and Wazirganj blocks of the Gaya district from 75 km to 1 km, bringing him national acclaim. He died on August 17, 2007. He was given a state funeral by the Government of Bihar .