Twenty-year-old Surendra Singh Choudhary, popularly known as ‘Bittu Tabahi’, from Madhya Pradesh, has been offered a job by the Netherlands-based organisation The Ocean Cleanup for cleaning a river single-handedly.
The organisation’s founder and CEO, Boyan Slat, was impressed by Bittu’s efforts and wrote, “Come work with us.” The Ocean Cleanup works to remove plastic waste from oceans and rivers.
Former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen also praised Bittu. He said change begins when someone stops waiting for others and takes the initiative themselves.
The water of the Ajnar River, which originates in Madhya Pradesh’s Rajgarh district, was once used for drinking and irrigation. However, increasing pollution turned it into a dirty drain. Bittu cleaned the river and shared pictures of his work on social media, after which he went viral. On Friday, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav also met him.
CM Mohan Yadav met Bittu and his friends.
Took a pledge to clean the river on January 26
On January 26 this year, Bittu pledged to restore the Ajnar River to its old, clean state. Initially, a few friends joined him, but they gradually dropped out because of the difficult and tiring work. After that, Bittu continued the clean-up on his own.
Every morning, he would get into the river and spend hours in the water, removing garbage with his hands. After nearly three months of hard work, the river’s appearance changed. It now has clean water instead of garbage.
Also used a JCB, spent money from his own pocket
Along with investing his time and effort in cleaning the river, Bittu also spent his own money. To remove heavy waste from the deeper parts of the river, he paid out of his own pocket to hire a JCB machine.
Bittu and his friends cleaning the river.
They tell their parents they are going out to play cricket
Bittu and Krishna say they have been uploading reels of their river-cleaning work on social media accounts for the past two to two-and-a-half months. Their parents do not use social media, so they never found out what the two were doing. “We simply leave home telling them that we are going to play cricket.”
However, in the past few days, ever since Mahindra praised their work on social media, many people have started speaking to them more warmly. The district collector also called them and honoured them. The MLA has invited them as well. The administration has now also started using JCB machines to remove garbage from these river ghats.
