Indian man moves mountain to park truck

PATNA, India (Reuters Life!) - An Indian villager used a hammer and chisel over the span of 14 years to carve a tunnel through a rocky mountain so that he could park his truck in front of his house.

"I could not park my truck near my house since the mountain blocked my path," Ramchandra Das, 53, who lives in eastern Bihar state's Gaya district, told Reuters.

Das said fear of thieves stealing his truck prompted him to work on the tunnel all by himself after authorities refused help.

"I had to leave my truck miles away, so I decided to do something about it myself," Das said by telephone.

Local villagers, who had to trek for miles to get around the mountain are using the 14 feet (4.2 meter) wide tunnel to reach their farms, and praising Das for his work.

"We rarely come across a man who can work so hard to achieve his goal," Prabhat Kumar Jha, a local government official said.

(Writing by Bappa Majumdar; Editing by Miral Fahmy)