Punjab’s most loved saint, Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal is a man you should know about. He is an eco-activist, flag bearer of most of the anti-river pollution campaigns, and for his next project he has vowed to clean up ‘Buddha Nullah’, a seasonal water stream from river Sutlej.
Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal is popularly known as ‘eco baba’ because of innumerable achievements in conserving the environment.
Among his works done, rejuvenating or bringing back to life the historically important river Kali Bein to life without taking any support from the government is one.
This river or a tributary of river Beas is a 160 km long stretch that has been a dumping stretch of human wastage for a long time.
The cleanup started around 16 years back in 2000 when Sant Seechewal and his volunteers joined hands and cleared the hyacinth and silt out of the river.
Steps were small and it definitely did take time, but he and his volunteers did manage to clean Kali Bein. Cleaning the river bed is not just what he has achieved, Sant Seechewal and his volunteers have beautified the river bank with flowers, plants, and brick roads. Doing this has improved the normal flow of river.
Images below show the travesty this river faced before the rejuvenation:
And these are the images after the clean up:
Sant Seechewal has even approached Narendra Modi government to improvise his model of cleaning up river for the river Ganga. Former president APJ Abdul Kalam had praised his work in many of his speeches.
His work has also been recognized by international organizations too. TIME magazine has honoured Sant Seechewal ‘Hero of Environment’ which is first by any Indian or Asian.
Original Story Published in The Logical Indian
Image Credit: dainikbhaskar nirmalkuteya
