A 21-year-old BSc student from Madhya Pradesh, Surendra Singh Choudhary, popularly known as ‘Bittu Tabahi’, has drawn widespread attention for taking it upon himself to clean the polluted Ajnar River in Biaora.
His efforts have now earned praise from former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen, who called his work “heroic” and said it deserved international recognition.
“I read this story this am and wanted to share it with you! well done, Bhai! He even began turning puja waste into compost and pooled money with friends to buy tools and dustbins. Then his work reached thousands online. Some accused him of doing it for likes. Bittu’s surname means “destruction. Heroic, I say! Deserves international recognition! Pietersen wrote.
At 21, Bittu Tabahi stepped into a polluted river, without gloves, boots or even knowing how to swim, and started cleaning it himself. On 26 January 2026, the BSc student from Madhya Pradesh began cleaning the Ajnar River near a temple in Biaora, removing plastic and other waste that had turned parts of the river into a dumping ground. The effort cost him around 30,000 rupees, and at one point, he suffered infections on his hands.
Because sometimes, change begins when one person stops waiting for someone else to start. Today, he is trying to destroy something else: water pollution.
