A 20-year-old Indian man known as Bittu Tabahi has found the Ajnar River in central India’s Madhya Pradesh state littered with plastic bags and other waste again, weeks after he spent eight months clearing it.
Surendra Singh Choudhary, as he is formally named, was left disheartened by the sight.
He shared a video on Instagram on Tuesday showing garbage piled along the banks in Rajgarh district, despite months of effort to clean the stretch, India Today reports.
He had removed tonnes of waste from the river over eight months, working alone and without specialised equipment, the Indian broadcaster said.
“I never imagined that eight months of my hard work would go to waste like this,” he was quoted as writing in the caption.
The sight did not keep him from returning to the river. In the video, Bittu says he has started cleaning the Ajnar again, although he does not know how to swim.
The clip shows him wading in and pulling out bags of waste one after another as he tries to clear the stretch once more.
He also turned to his followers, asking them to suggest ways to remove larger amounts of rubbish more efficiently.
The appeal pointed to how hard it is to keep a river clean when dumping continues after a cleanup.
The video prompted social media users to voice support. Many urged him to carry on, while others argued that responsibility for keeping rivers clean should not rest on one person alone, the report said.
It added that his repeated attempts to clear the river also drew attention to how waste returns when littering goes on.
The Ajnar is not the only place Bittu has worked to clean. Together with a team of 100 people, he has also cleaned the Turahalli Forest, about 20km from Bengaluru in southern India, off Kanakapura Road, according to India Today.
His work has caught the eye of prominent figures too. Indian industrialist Anand Mahindra shared his river-cleaning efforts on X, giving the campaign another boost online.
Bittu’s efforts have earned him international attention and even a job offer from Boyan Slat, founder and chief executive officer of the Dutch environmental organisation The Ocean Cleanup.