Dutch CEO offers job to Bittu Tabahi, the man who cleaned filthy river by himself

After months of cleaning the polluted Ajnar River on his own, Surendra Singh Choudhry caught the attention of Dutch CEO Boyan Slat. The Ocean Cleanup founder's invitation has turned a local effort into a global opening.Dutch CEO offers job to Bittu Tabahi, the man who cleaned filthy river by himself (Photos: @bittu_tabahi/Instagram)A 20-year-old man in Madhya Pradesh spent months cleaning a heavily polluted river largely on his own. His efforts have now caught the attention of Dutch CEO Boyan Slat, who invited him to work with his organisation, The Ocean Cleanup.Surendra Singh Choudhry, known online as Bittu Tabahi, has been pulling plastic, discarded waste and other rubbish from the Ajnar River, along with cleaning up surrounding public spaces.Surendra was not carrying out the clean-up as part of an official campaign or a large environmental drive. Instead, he was paying for the basic supplies himself and showing up to remove the waste from the river.In a post shared on Instagram, Surendra also showed a before-and-after picture of the Ajnar River. The first image showed the water and its surroundings covered with waste, while the second offered a starkly different view after his efforts. The pictures showed just how much difference one person could make with persistence, even without an organisation or large team backing the effort.Take a look at the post here: His work later caught the attention of Boyan Slat, the Dutch of The Ocean Cleanup, an organisation working to remove plastic pollution from oceans and rivers.An X account shared the story, writing that the 20-year-old had been cleaning the heavily polluted Ajnar River himself for months alongside the before-and-after images.Slat responded to the post with a simple invitation: “Come work with us.”Take a look at the post here:The brief comment quickly added a new chapter to Surendra Choudhry’s clean-up effort, turning what began as one young man’s personal attempt to clean his local river into an opportunity to work with an organisation known globally for tackling plastic pollution.- EndsPublished By: Yashna TalwarPublished On: Sep 5, 2026 17:28 IST