Farman Ali climbing his tree house.

Gulf Today Report

A 28-year-old Pakistani man was nicknamed Tarzan of Karachi, after started living in a tree for the past eight years due to his extreme poverty.

Farman Ali became the talk of social media after footage of his house on the tree went viral a few weeks ago.

People were amazed at the young man who had been able to live on the tree all these years, but while he was telling everyone who asked, he did not do so by choice, he said: 'After I lost my father and mother, I was so poor that I could not afford any kind of traditional housing.

After living in the streets for a while, I decided to live on a tree.

I put planks on the outside, bamboo and wood, and old doors with a piece of cloth to protect myself from wind and rain.

Farman said it is the only place where no one will bother me or take me away from it because it is public property.

Tarzan or the tree man, as some call him, earns his living by washing cars and sweeping and cleaning people's homes.

Most of his clients give him cold water and food, and some money that is barely enough for his daily needs, so he can't even think of getting a proper home.

Farman said he knocked on all doors for help from relatives and acquaintances, but no one wanted to deal with a poor man who had nothing to offer.

Farman said he built his own treehouse, and managed to set up a sink to wash his face every morning, a small makeshift oven for cooking and heating water, and even a small battery-powered lamp and charger for his phone.

He said he was married at one point, and since he couldn't earn the 30,000 rupees ($165) that his partner was asking for a month, she eventually left him.