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.
Taking to Instagram, Pietersen shared before-and-after pictures showing the transformation of parts of the river and praised the youngster for stepping in rather than waiting for others to act.
(Also read: Bittu Tabahi says people are littering less after he went viral: ‘Thoda antar aaya hai’)
“I read this story this am and wanted to share it with you! well done, Bhai! 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. He even began turning puja waste into compost and pooled money with friends to buy tools and dustbins. The effort cost him around 30,000 rupees, and at one point, he suffered infections on his hands. Then his work reached thousands online. Some accused him of doing it for likes. Bittu’s surname means “destruction.” Today, he is trying to destroy something else: water pollution. Because sometimes, change begins when one person stops waiting for someone else to start. Heroic, I say! Deserves international recognition!” Pietersen wrote.
Check out his post here:
Who is Bittu Tabahi?
Choudhary hails from Biaora in Madhya Pradesh’s Rajgarh district and has been documenting his river-cleaning efforts through videos on Instagram.
The footage shows him removing plastic, algae and other accumulated waste from the Ajnar River, often carrying out the work with little or no assistance.
He reportedly began the initiative in January and has since cleaned and restored several stretches of the river. Digital content creator KR Talks earlier said that Choudhary had spent around ₹30,000 of his own money on the initiative.
(Also read: Bittu Tabahi, who single-handedly cleaned trash-filled river, gets job offer from Dutch CEO: ‘Come work for us’)
Job offer from Netherlands
Choudhary’s campaign has also attracted attention beyond India. Boyan Slat, founder and CEO of Netherlands-based non-profit The Ocean Cleanup, offered him a job after coming across a post highlighting his work.
An X user had shared before-and-after photographs of the river and written, “A 21-year-old Indian man, Surendra Singh Choudhry, known as ‘Bittu Tabahi,’ has been cleaning the heavily polluted Ajnar River himself for months.”
Slat responded to the post with a brief but striking offer: “Come work for us.”
