How a 21-year-old man single-handedly cleaned a trash-filled river in India

A 21-year-old college student in central India has spent months wading into a dirty river to pull out plastic, bottles, algae, and other trash — mostly by himself. Surendra Singh Choudhary, known online as "Bittu Tabahi," started cleaning the Ajnar River in the state of Madhya Pradesh in January. He used basic tools and his own hands, with no special safety gear and no outside funding.

Choudhary grew up in a small town called Biaora and is studying science at a local university. He lives with his parents and, at first, kept his river cleanup a secret from them. He would tell them he was going to play cricket or hang out with friends, but he would go straight to the river instead.

He first noticed the trash while visiting a nearby temple that sat along the river. Seeing garbage piled up near a place he thought of as special bothered him deeply. "Whenever I used to go to the temple or went past the river, I used to think about cleaning the river," he told the Times of India.

A few friends helped him at the start, but most of them eventually stopped coming back. Choudhary kept going on his own, even during hot summer evenings. He did not have proper safety equipment, and he did not even know how to swim, but he kept returning to the water anyway.

The dirty water took a toll on his body. He told the Indian Express that repeated contact with the polluted river left him with skin infections and peeling skin on his hands and feet. He and his friends pooled their own money for supplies, spending about Rs 30,000 — roughly £233 — on the project, plus trash cans placed near the river, all without any outside funding.

Before-and-after photos of the river spread quickly on social media. Anand Mahindra, the chairman of a major Indian company called Mahindra Group, shared a video of Choudhary's work on the platform X and called him his "Monday Motivation." Former England cricket captain Kevin Pietersen also shared the story on Instagram, writing, "Heroic, I say! Deserves international recognition!"

Not everyone was supportive, though. Some people accused Choudhary of doing the cleanup just for attention online, and others questioned whether the photos were even real. In one video, Choudhary pushed back against claims that the images had been faked using artificial intelligence, pointing to the many months of hard work he had put in as proof.

Local government leaders eventually stepped in to help. The town's municipal authorities brought in heavy machinery to remove large amounts of built-up waste, and local residents also joined the effort. However, Choudhary argued that removing trash is only part of the solution if people keep throwing it back in.

Five major drains pour wastewater into the river, and the town has proposed building a sewage treatment plant costing about £1.1 million. People also leave flowers and other materials used in Hindu religious worship in the river as offerings, adding to the waste. Choudhary has been collecting some of those offerings and turning them into compost instead of letting them pollute the water.

His work caught attention far beyond his hometown. Boyan Slat, a Dutch inventor who founded The Ocean Cleanup, responded to a post about Choudhary on X with a simple message: "Come work for us." The chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Mohan Yadav, also met with Choudhary and praised him for what he had done.