Meet the Ganga crusader of Kashi

Here’s what one man is capable of, and does

Long before day has broken, he gets up and heads to the Ganga in Varanasi. He stops at one of the ghats and begins pulling plastic and other waste out of the river. This is his daily routine for the past five years, excluding the rains.

Rajesh Shukla, the crusader for a clean Ganga

In the process, he has also inspired around 20 locals who join him daily in his efforts to try and clean the river.

Meet Rajesh Shukla, the crusader for a clean Ganga. Be it Deepawali, Holi or any other occasion, his day begins by cleaning the Ganga.

Shukla started his work five years back when he saw people dumping waste into the river. “I had gone to Rana Mahal Ghat. I was sitting on its stairs. As I was soaking in the serenity of the Ganga flowing calmly, a person dumped a plastic bottle and an empty packet of chips into the river. It was then that I decided to contribute to Ganga cleaning physically,” Shukla said.

Since, Shukla visits the ghat daily without fail and removes waste and garbage dumped into the Ganga at least on one ghat daily. Shukla’s efforts have inspired like-minded people to join him daily in his efforts. The volunteers take out plastic waste, including bottles, polythene, clothes and flowers and put all these into a big sack and take it to the dumping yard. Other waste is collected at the stairs of the ghat and the team ensures that sanitation workers take it away.

Shukla and his team of volunteers create awareness among the visitors to the ghat and appeal to them to contribute to the Ganga-cleaning efforts. “We urge people not to throw waste into the river and contribute to its cleaning in whatever manner they can. We tell them not to litter the ghats because the plastic waste and litter eventually goes into the Ganga. Keeping the ghats clean, therefore, is very important,” Shukla said.

Shukla and his team of volunteers often hire two boats and ride from Asi ghat to Raj Ghat with a sound system, making an appeal to people to come forward to clean the Ganga.

Shukla also appeals to the people to plant trees along the river. His volunteers and he also contribute and buy cloth satchels, with an appeal to shun plastic and polythene bags which are not good for the environment and the Ganga, which they then distribute among visitors to the ghats. Shukla said, “Swachh Ganga mission will continue until the goal of a clean Ganga is achieved.”