Friends go out to play, end up cleaning river:Three youths enter water without swimming skills; Anand Mahindra lauds them

Three friends from Biaora, 119 kilometres from Bhopal, are currently being discussed across the country and the world. The three friends, aged 20, 18, and 18, live in the same neighbourhood. On Republic Day, after the national flag was hoisted and people were singing the national anthem, they took a pledge to clean the Ajnar River. None of them knew how to swim, yet they entered the river. They started making reels of their daily work and uploading them. People trolled them and made fun, but they would leave every day saying they were going to play cricket and would clean the river. Even during exams in February-March, they continued to clean every day. At one of the river’s ghats, where there was once a mountain of garbage, they have now painted it. People come there to visit. Recently, when famous industrialist Anand Mahindra praised their work, the attention of the country and the world fell upon them. Some people said they were doing this to become famous on social media. Dainik Bhaskar reached Biaora and understood the real picture. Bittu gave the idea of river cleaning When the Bhaskar team reached Biaora, the three friends were preparing to go to the river, riding on a scooter. Now they have become famous faces in the city. The main character is Bittu Tabahi alias Surendra Chaudhary. The two other characters are Krishna Verma and Krishna Agrawal. Starting the conversation, Krishna said that this idea was Bittu’s. On January 26, Bittu said, “Why don’t we do something that makes people feel that we have brought some change?” We used to come here to play cricket. Many times we felt like sitting on the ghat, but there was so much dirt that we couldn’t sit. Since then, we have cleaned 3 ghats so far. People used to make fun of us, but we kept at it Continuing Krishna’s point, Bittu said – We thought about cleaning the river, but the problem was that none of us three knew how to swim. Still, we didn’t back down. We arranged for gloves, shoes, and a net. Then we had a tool made to pull out the garbage. Not a single day has passed since January 26 that we haven’t come to the ghat. Once, while working in the river, a snake came onto my feet. My friend Krishna told me. It was a good thing I was wearing big shoes. How do you manage the money? To this question, Bittu said that he saved his pocket money to buy gloves, shoes, and a net for himself. We have also received some help from social media. So far, we have spent about 30 thousand rupees on cleaning. When we have to do some work, we save money for it for 15 days. So far, we have spent 30 thousand rupees on drums, paint, and other tools. Got skin infection, also had fever many times Due to the dirt, all three boys have also developed skin infections on their hands and feet. They say that they often get fever. We also know that all this is happening due to staying in dirty water for a long time, but once we move forward in cleaning it, it will be a very big work for the city. Bittu says that the waste that came out of the river, we did not throw it. We have buried it near the ghat. We want this waste to be recycled and used somewhere. Nowadays, plastic waste is also being used in road construction. Continued working even during exams Bittu’s other companions, Krishna Verma and Krishna Agrawal, were both studying in the twelfth grade. Their exams were also in February-March. We asked how they worked during the exams. The answer was that even during this period, they came to the ghat every evening. We did not miss a single day of this work. They never told their family members either. Whenever family members asked, they would say that they were going to play to relax a bit. Telling parents they are going to play cricket Bittu and Krishna say that they have been uploading reels of river cleaning on social media accounts for two to two and a half months. Parents do not use social media. They never knew what they were doing? We leave home saying that we are going to play cricket. This young man from Biaora, M.P, was criticised for claiming to have cleaned parts of a river just in order to gain social media views.Well, we usually complain that social media rewards the trivial rather than the meaningful So If a desire for ‘likes’ can become a force for… pic.twitter.com/ARgEhphuQN— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) March 30, 2026 Yes, for some days now, ever since Mr. Mahindra praised our work on social media, many people talk to us nicely. The Collector also called us and honoured us. The MLA has also called us. The administration is now also engaged in removing garbage from these ghats with a JCB. 15 Drains, the entire city’s sewage and waste also in this river This river, flowing through the heart of Byawara city, is choked with plastic waste. Wherever you look, sewage is visible. These boys have tried to change the situation at 3 ghats of the river in two months. They cleaned the stairs of the ghat and painted them. They put up posters saying ‘Do not throw garbage on the ghats…’ and also placed two drums for throwing garbage on the ghat. The three friends empty the garbage drums daily. They tell people not to throw garbage outside. After their efforts, government officials also seem to be becoming active. Ikrar Ahmed, CMO of Byawara Municipality, reached one such ghat with his team. Ahmed says that the origin of the Ajnar river is 15 kilometres from here. The sewage of the entire city and the dirt from small and large drains flow into the river. To prevent sewage from mixing into it, we have prepared a DPR. Under the Ganga Jal Samvardhan Scheme, we are striving to improve this river.