Meet The Man Who Quit His Job to Clean the Yamuna River
Every Sunday morning, as the city slows down for the weekend, Pankaj Kumar and his team head to the banks of the Yamuna River at Kalindi Kunj Ghat in Delhi. Gloves on, driven by quiet resolve, they begin their weekly ritual — removing heaps of waste, plastic, and debris from one of India’s most polluted rivers.
But for them, this isn’t just about cleaning up garbage — it’s about reviving a dying river.
A former corporate professional, Pankaj made a bold choice: he quit his job to dedicate himself full-time to cleaning India’s rivers. He founded ‘Earth Warriors’, a volunteer-driven initiative that not only leads clean-up drives but also investigates the systems responsible for river pollution.
What fuels their commitment? The numbers speak for themselves. India generates an estimated 73 billion litres of sewage every day — yet only 28 percent of it is treated. The rest flows untreated into rivers like the Yamuna, polluting the very water bodies that sustain our cities and communities.
Realising that clean-ups alone wouldn’t solve the crisis, Earth Warriors expanded their mission. They began inspecting sewage treatment plants across 12 states, filing legal complaints, and pushing civic bodies for accountability. They believe in prevention before cure — highlighting the urgent need to fix broken systems that allow untreated waste to choke our rivers.
The scale of the challenge is staggering. In Delhi alone, just two percent of the Yamuna’s stretch accounts for 80 percent of its pollution, largely due to heavily contaminated drains like Najafgarh and Shahdara, according to the Centre for Science and Environment. In cities like Gurugram, unchecked industrial waste from dyeing and chemical units continues to pour into water bodies. Even existing sewage treatment plants often fail to meet basic safety standards.
Every Sunday, Pankaj Kumar leads clean-up drives at Delhi’s Kalindi Kunj Ghat, removing tonnes of waste from the Yamuna’s banks.
Yet, despite the odds, Pankaj and his team return week after week, driven by the belief that citizens must be part of the solution — not just the conversation.
Pankaj’s journey is a powerful reminder: we may have created this crisis, but we also have the capacity — and the responsibility — to change it.
Edited by Khushi Arora
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