Indian student cleans Ajnar river by hand
Solo months-long effort in Madhya Pradesh goes viral as authorities propose sewage plant, a free cleanup collides with five drains still flowing
Images
A 21-year-old student in central India has spent months wading into a filthy river to pull out plastic, bottles, algae, and other rubbish, with little more than basic tools and his own hands (Surendra Singh Choudhry/Instagram)
Surendra Singh Choudhry/Instagram
Madhya Pradesh chief minister Mohan Yadav met Choudhary at his residence in Bhopal on Saturday and praised his efforts (Dr Mohan Yadav/X)
Dr Mohan Yadav/X
A 21-year-old university student in Madhya Pradesh has spent months pulling plastic, bottles and other rubbish out of the Ajnar river by hand, according to The Independent. Surendra Singh Choudhary, who is also known locally as “Bittu Tabahi”, began the cleanup in January after repeated visits to a riverside temple left him watching offerings and household waste accumulate in the water.
The work started as a small group effort and then became largely solitary. Choudhary told the paper he initially hid the trips from his parents, saying he was going to play cricket or meet friends, and he kept going through seasonal changes, sometimes working in the evenings during summer. He did it without proper safety equipment and despite not being able to swim; repeated contact with polluted water left him with infections and skin peeling on his hands and feet. He and friends pooled money for basic tools and he placed dustbins along the riverbank without outside funding.
The story’s viral afterlife arrived quickly: before-and-after images circulated online and drew both praise and suspicion. Anand Mahindra, the chairman of the Mahindra Group, shared a video of Choudhary’s work on X, while former England cricket captain Kevin Pietersen amplified it on Instagram, calling for international recognition, The Independent reports. The same attention brought accusations that the cleanup was staged for views, and even claims that the images were fabricated using artificial intelligence. Choudhary’s response was not a counter-campaign but a timeline: he pointed to the months spent hauling waste out himself.
Local authorities eventually entered the frame, not with a new system but with heavy machinery to remove accumulated debris, and residents joined in, according to a municipal sub-engineer quoted by ANI. Yet the river’s underlying economics remain unchanged. Choudhary told the paper that removing rubbish is only part of the problem because trash keeps returning; five major drains discharge wastewater into the river, and the municipality has proposed a sewage treatment plant. Religious practice also feeds the cycle: flowers and other worship materials are left in the water as offerings, and Choudhary has tried to divert some of that stream by composting what he collects.
The cleanup made one individual visible, but it also mapped the boundary of what an individual can do. A river that functions as a dumping channel will refill as long as the drains and habits stay in place.
Choudhary started by lying about cricket. Months later, the municipality’s proposed fix is a treatment plant that still has to be built.