Bittu Tabahi launched a three-day Yamuna cleanup drive on World Cleanup Day.
Volunteers removed 585 kg of waste from the Delhi riverbank in the first phase.
The campaign later moved to Gurugram, where 2,435 kg of waste was collected.
After cleaning Ajnar River in Madhya Pradesh and a forest in Karnataka, Surendra Singh Choudhary, better known as Bittu Tabahi, has taken his environmental cleanup campaign to the National Capital Region (NCR), beginning with Delhi’s Yamuna River.
Bittu launched a three-day 'Clean With Bittu' drive on September 20, which coincided with World Cleanup Day. During the first phase of the campaign, Bittu and a group of volunteers spent around four-and-a-half hours cleaning a stretch of the Yamuna riverbank and collected 585 kg of waste, according to his social media post.
Sharing a video of the cleanup on Instagram, Bittu said the riverbank was covered with plastic waste, flowers, garlands and religious offerings.
“September 20, World Cleanup Day. Four and a half hours of cleaning on the banks of the Yamuna, and together removed 585 kg of garbage,” he wrote.
Residents Join Yamuna Cleanup Drive
The cleanup effort also saw participation from people living around the area, according to Bittu.
“Flowers, garlands, worship items, plastic were all scattered on the pier. The people around also came, helped, and the whole shore was cleared. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who came,” he wrote.
Bittu also thanked Philip Morris for supporting his journey and announced that Gurugram’s Khedki Daula would be the next stop of the campaign.
The cleanup video gained significant attention online, with many users praising his efforts to take the campaign to different locations.
From Ajnar River To Turahalli Forest
The Yamuna drive follows Bittu’s earlier cleanup projects that brought him recognition on social media.
He first gained attention after taking on the heavily polluted Ajnar River in Madhya Pradesh, where his efforts to restore the water body attracted widespread appreciation.
Following the river cleanup, Bittu and a team of around 100 people worked on cleaning the Turahalli Forest near Bengaluru, located around 20 km from the city off Kanakapura Road.
His work on the Ajnar River also drew international attention. Boyan Slat, founder and CEO of Netherlands-based environmental organisation The Ocean Cleanup, offered him a job following his efforts.
Industrialist Anand Mahindra also shared Bittu’s river-cleaning work on X, further increasing visibility for the campaign.
Cleanup Drive Moves To Gurugram
After Delhi, Bittu and his team moved to Gurugram’s Khedki Daula as part of the NCR campaign.
During the Gurugram leg, the team collected 2,435 kg of waste, according to Bittu’s Instagram update.
A video shared by him showed volunteers removing plastic and other waste from the area. Bittu highlighted concerns over plastic waste being consumed by animals, particularly cows, when mixed with discarded material.
He said the team’s objective was to clear the entire stretch and encouraged people to participate in maintaining cleaner public spaces.
Noida To Be Final Stop
Bittu said the three-day #CleanWithBittu campaign would conclude in Noida, with Yuva Shakti Ghat in Sector 94 announced as the final location.
Sharing an update about the campaign, he wrote in Hindi:
“Jaisa ki aap dekh sakte hain, humne apni #CleanWithBittu cleanup journey Sunday, World Cleanup Day se shuru ki thi.”
He added that the team had completed cleanup activities in Delhi and Gurugram and would end the campaign in Noida. He also invited residents to join the final cleanup drive.
A Mission Beyond One Cleanup
Bittu has previously said that his aim is to travel across different parts of India, clean polluted water bodies and encourage greater awareness about environmental responsibility.
The NCR campaign marks another phase of that journey, bringing his hands-on approach to one of India’s most discussed environmental challenges — urban waste and polluted public spaces.
From the Ajnar River in Madhya Pradesh to Bengaluru’s Turahalli Forest and now the Yamuna region, Bittu’s cleanup efforts have continued to draw public attention while involving local volunteers in the process.
