Bittu Tabahi, the young Madhya Pradesh man who drew national attention for cleaning the polluted Ajnar River on his own, has shared a video showing the waterway choked with garbage again.
He said he never imagined that months of his work "would go to waste like this".
The video, posted on his Instagram channel, shows the river in Biaora, in Rajgarh district, strewn with waste only weeks after he had cleared its banks.
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In the wide shot, the water is dotted with floating plastic, cloth and flowers.Rubbish also lies thick on the muddy banks.
Closer shots shows Tabahi wading into the murky shallows with an orange pole. He drags out marigold flowers, plastic wrappers and chunks of thermocol that float on the dark water.
According to reports, Surendra Singh Choudhary, known online as Bittu Tabahi, began cleaning the river on January 26, 2026. His solo effort went viral and drew praise from across the country and abroad. Former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen called it "heroic".
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The attention, however, did not stop the dumping. Reports said Tabahi had earlier shared clips of people throwing waste into the river even as he worked, and of unidentified people damaging infrastructure and tossing it into the water.
In the caption of his latest post, he reportedly asked followers for suggestions on how to clear the river more effectively. The video has drawn a wave of reactions online, with many users urging him not to give up and others questioning why civic bodies and residents have not done more.
The episode points to a wider problem in Indian towns, where rivers and drains are treated as dumping grounds. It also shows how individual effort can struggle to hold without regular waste collection, enforcement against dumping and community participation.
There was no immediate word from local authorities on any plan to clean the river or stop the dumping.
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