For months, Surendra Singh Choudhary kept returning to the same polluted river in Madhya Pradesh, pulling out plastic, garbage and other waste with his own hands. The 20-year-old BSc student did not have a large team, expensive machinery or an official campaign behind him.
He simply saw a river near his hometown getting buried under waste and decided to do something about it. Now, that quiet local effort has reached an international stage after Boyan Slat, founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup, invited him to work with the organisation.
Who is Bittu Tabahi?
Surendra Singh Choudhary, popularly known online as Bittu Tabahi, comes from Biaora in Madhya Pradesh’s Rajgarh district. He is a BSc student who began documenting his efforts to clean the Ajnar River on social media.
The river had accumulated plastic, bottles, algae, garbage and other waste. Instead of waiting for a large cleanup programme, Choudhary started removing the waste himself. Reports say he used his own money to buy basic supplies and continued working across different stretches of the river.
His before-and-after videos and photographs eventually attracted widespread attention online. The transformation of parts of the river gave viewers a clear look at the scale of the work he had undertaken.
Bittu Tabahi Job Offer: From Local Cleanup To Global Attention
The story changed when an X user shared Choudhary’s work along with photographs showing the Ajnar River before and after his cleanup efforts.
The post highlighted that the young man had been cleaning the heavily polluted river himself for months. It then caught the attention of Boyan Slat, the Dutch founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup.
Slat replied with just four words, “Come work for us.”
Come work for us @Surendr75950620
— Boyan Slat (@BoyanSlat) September 4, 2026
The short message quickly went viral and turned Choudhary’s grassroots environmental campaign into an unexpected career story.
The Ocean Cleanup is a Netherlands-based non-profit organisation that develops technologies to remove plastic from oceans and prevent plastic from rivers from reaching the sea. Its official website says the organisation works on both ocean cleanup and river interception projects.
Why Boyan Slat’s Offer Stands Out?
Slat’s organisation works on a problem that closely matches the one Choudhary has been trying to address on a much smaller scale.
The Ocean Cleanup says hundreds of thousands of tonnes of plastic enter the oceans every year, with rivers acting as a major pathway. The organisation has therefore developed systems designed to intercept plastic in rivers before it reaches the ocean.
Choudhary’s work has focused on removing waste directly from the Ajnar River. While his approach has been simple and largely manual, the problem he is confronting is part of the wider plastic-pollution challenge that The Ocean Cleanup is trying to tackle globally.
That connection makes Slat’s invitation particularly notable.
Bittu Started The Cleanup With His Own Resources
Reports on Choudhary’s journey say he began the initiative in January 2026 and continued it for months. Some reports place the beginning of his major cleanup effort around January 26, Republic Day.
He reportedly spent around ₹30,000 on the effort, using his own money to obtain basic equipment and supplies. His work included removing plastic, bottles, algae and accumulated waste from polluted sections of the river.
The young student also faced criticism online. Some people questioned whether he was carrying out the cleanup mainly to gain social media attention.
Instead of stopping, he continued documenting the actual work.
His videos eventually became one of the main reasons more people learned about the condition of the river and the effort he was making to clean it.
Anand Mahindra Had Already Praised Bittu
Boyan Slat is not the first prominent figure to notice Choudhary’s work.
Industrialist Anand Mahindra praised Bittu Tabahi earlier in 2026 after videos of his river cleanup began circulating online. Mahindra addressed criticism that Choudhary might have been cleaning the river simply to gain views and followers.
Mahindra wrote, “This young man from Biaora, M.P, was criticised for claiming to have cleaned parts of a river just 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 good, that’s fine with me. Bittu Tabahi from Biaora is my #MondayMotivation.”
The post helped push Choudhary’s story beyond Madhya Pradesh and introduced his work to a much larger online audience.
Bittu Tabahi Job Offer: Madhya Pradesh CM Mohan Yadav Also Met Him
Choudhary later received recognition from Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, who met him at his residence in Bhopal.
Yadav shared a video of the meeting and praised the young man for taking responsibility for cleaning the Ajnar River.
He wrote, “Had a warm interaction at my Bhopal residence with Surendra Singh Choudhary, popularly known as ‘Bittu Tabahi’, a son of Biaora. Through his determination and strong resolve, Bittu has not only cleaned the Ajnar River but has also sent a powerful message to society that meaningful change does not always require a large crowd; sometimes, one sincere initiative is enough to make a difference.”
भोपाल निवास पर ब्यावरा के बेटे सुरेंद्र सिंह चौधरी ‘बिट्टू तबाही’ से आत्मीय भेंट की।
बिट्टू ने अपनी दृढ़ इच्छाशक्ति और संकल्प से सिर्फ अजनार नदी की सफाई ही नहीं की, बल्कि अपने प्रयासों से समाज को यह संदेश भी दिया है कि बदलाव के लिए बड़ी भीड़ नहीं, एक सच्ची पहल ही काफी है।
आपकी… pic.twitter.com/hQVbdVYMMf
— Dr Mohan Yadav (@DrMohanYadav51) September 5, 2026
Yadav further added, “I am confident that the commitment he has demonstrated through his work on the Ajnar River will inspire young people across the state to take responsibility for protecting and preserving water bodies in their own surroundings. The entire state is proud of you.”
The Before-And-After Images Made His Work Visible
One reason Choudhary’s story spread so quickly was the visual evidence he shared.
His social media posts showed polluted stretches of the Ajnar River covered with waste and compared them with images taken after his cleanup efforts. The contrast made the impact of his work easier for viewers to understand.
His posts also helped him build a large following online, turning a local environmental effort into a widely discussed social media story.
From ‘Crazy’ To Environmental Inspiration
Choudhary has faced mockery and criticism during his campaign, with some people reportedly questioning why a young student would spend so much time cleaning a polluted river.
Yet his continued work changed the conversation.
Recent reports describe how people who initially dismissed his efforts began recognising the scale of what he had achieved. His story has since been presented as an example of how an individual can begin tackling a local environmental problem without waiting for a large organisation to arrive.
What is The Ocean Cleanup?
The organisation that has now noticed Choudhary’s work was founded by Boyan Slat in the Netherlands.
According to The Ocean Cleanup, Slat founded the organisation after becoming concerned about plastic pollution and later developed technologies aimed at removing plastic from oceans and intercepting waste flowing through rivers.
The organisation says its mission involves both removing plastic already present in the oceans and stopping new plastic from reaching them through rivers and waterways. It aims to remove 90% of floating ocean plastic by 2040.
What Happens Next For Bittu Tabahi?
Slat’s “Come work for us.” message has opened a new possibility for Choudhary, but the public invitation itself does not provide details about a formal job appointment, role, salary or joining date.
For now, the striking part of the story is how far a personal cleanup effort has travelled.
A student from Biaora began by removing waste from a polluted local river. His videos brought the work to social media, prominent Indian figures praised his efforts, and his campaign eventually reached one of the world’s best-known organisations working on plastic pollution.
What began as one young man’s decision to clean the river near his home has now turned into an opportunity that could take his environmental work far beyond the Ajnar River.
