5 Key Takeaways
- Bittu Tabahi spent eight months manually cleaning the Ajnar River and removed tonnes of garbage largely by himself.
- The river was choked with plastic and waste again just weeks after the cleanup, undoing much of his work.
- Choudhary documented the relapse on Instagram and returned to the water to remove the rubbish bag by bag rather than give up.
- His appeal for more efficient cleanup methods drew mixed reactions, including praise, protective-equipment advice, and calls for fines on dumping.
- Voluntary cleanups alone cannot solve the problem; lasting change requires consistent waste collection, enforcement, and community behavior change.
Eight Months of Hard Work Goes to Waste: Bittu Tabahi Finds Ajnar River Choked With Garbage Again
For eight months, Surendra Singh Choudhary waded into the Ajnar River in Madhya Pradesh’s Rajgarh district and pulled out tonnes of waste by hand. He worked alone, without sophisticated equipment, and slowly returned the waterway to a cleaner state. But this week, when he visited the river again, the familiar sight of plastic bags and rubbish had returned. A video he shared on Instagram showed the waterway covered in waste just weeks after the banks had been clean. It was a sobering reminder of how quickly environmental progress can be undone.
Choudhary, better known as Bittu Tabahi, gained global recognition for his efforts to clean rivers. The Ajnar River had become one of his defining projects. Over the course of eight months, he removed tonnes of garbage from the water, often working by himself. The scale of the task was immense, but the riverbanks were visibly cleaner after his work. Then came the reversal.
The video, posted on Tuesday in October 2026, captured the disappointment directly. Plastic bags and other waste were once again accumulating in and around the river. The sight was particularly disheartening because the riverbanks had been clean only weeks earlier. The repeated dumping raised questions about public responsibility and about the maintenance of shared spaces after volunteer cleanups end.
“I never imagined that eight months of my hard work would go to waste like this,” Choudhary wrote in the caption accompanying the video.
Rather than abandon the effort, he returned to the water to remove the waste bag by bag. In the video, he was seen getting back into the river to pull out the rubbish. Alongside documenting the condition of the waterway, Choudhary asked social media users to suggest ways to remove the garbage more efficiently. His appeal drew attention to a difficult truth: maintaining a clean river is nearly impossible when waste continues to enter it after the cleanup is over.
The video prompted a mix of encouragement, frustration and suggestions from viewers. Several people praised Choudhary’s persistence while questioning why the river had become polluted again.
“So sad...But you’re a hero, man. More power to you!”
— Instagram user
“That's an awful amount of waste floating in the water beneath that bridge! It must be frustrating to face this every time, but please don't give up. Your hard work deserves so much appreciation.”
— Instagram user
“Use appropriate clothes for this type of cleaning; this includes boots and special pants. Good luck, greetings from Amazon Brazil.”
— Viewer from Brazil
Others argued that individual clean-up efforts would have limited impact without action against those responsible for dumping rubbish. “Talk to the Municipal Corporation and get a fine imposed for dumping garbage here. Otherwise, this will keep happening,” one user suggested.
The comments also reflected wider frustration over public behaviour. One viewer wrote, “Ye log kabhi nhi sudhareinge,” expressing the view that people would never change their habits.
The Ajnar River situation highlights a recurring challenge: voluntary cleanups can transform a waterway, but they cannot replace consistent waste collection, enforcement and community behaviour change. Choudhary’s eight months of labour were real, and the reversal came quickly once debris began accumulating again.
For now, Bittu Tabahi has made it clear he is not walking away from the river. His return to the water, bag by bag, shows the work will continue. But the longer-term solution may depend on local authorities and residents ensuring that garbage is not dumped there in the first place. Without that shared responsibility, even the most dedicated individual effort can be undone in a matter of weeks.
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