On the banks of the Ganga in Haridwar, an 86-year-old man sat quietly with a glass of honey water beside him.
Day after day, he refused food. Eventually, he gave up water too.
Around him, the river flowed on — slower in some stretches than it once had, interrupted by barrages, burdened by pollution, and at the heart of one of India’s longest environmental battles.
He called for a free-flowing Ganga River with no illegal mining and dams, as well as a Ganga Protection Management Act. Photograph: (indiawaterportal)
For 111 days, environmentalist and former IIT professor G D Agrawal, who had by then taken sanyas and become Swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand, waited for a response he believed could still save India’s most sacred river.
It never came.
On 11 October 2018, Agrawal died after suffering a cardiac arrest at AIIMS Rishikesh. His death brought one of India’s longest environmental fasts to an end. But it also left behind a question that still resonates today: What happened to the demands he was willing to die for?
A scientist who turned to faith
Long before he became a saffron-clad monk, Guru Das Agrawal was one of India’s leading environmental engineers.
He earned a PhD in Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, taught civil engineering at IIT Kanpur, served as the first Member-Secretary of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), and spent decades studying India’s rivers.
Earlier in his career, he had worked on aspects of the Tehri Dam project. The experience later shaped his opposition to large hydropower projects in the fragile Himalayan region.
Unlike many activists, Agrawal’s campaign was rooted in both science and faith.
He warned that excessive dam construction, diversion of river water, unchecked sand mining and pollution were disrupting the Ganga’s natural flow. For him, a river could not survive if it was treated only as a source of electricity, irrigation or transport.
In 2011, believing scientific reports alone could not inspire enough public action, he took sanyas in Varanasi under Swami Avimukteshwaranand and became Swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand.
A decade of fasting for one river
His final fast was not an isolated act. Between 2008 and 2018, hunger strikes became his principal form of protest.
His first major fast began in Uttarkashi in 2008, demanding stronger protection for the Ganga. Government assurances persuaded him to end the protest, but when progress remained slow, he returned to fasting.
In 2009, he launched another fast against the Loharinag Pala Hydroelectric Project on the Bhagirathi River.
Daily rituals, cremations along the banks, and the immersion of religious offerings and idols introduce solid waste, chemicals, and human remains into the river, compounding broader environmental and industrial crises. Photograph: (Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP)
By the 36th day, his health had deteriorated sharply. The government eventually suspended the project, marking one of the movement’s biggest victories.
His campaigns also contributed to reviews of projects such as Maneri and Bhairon Ghati and helped pave the way for the declaration of the Bhagirathi Eco-Sensitive Zone.
Even so, Agrawal believed much more needed to be done.
Speaking to The Guardian during one of his campaigns, he said, “This water is not ordinary water to a Hindu. It is a matter of life and death for the Hindu faith.”
The final 111 days
On 22 June 2018, Agrawal began what would become his last fast at Matri Sadan Ashram in Haridwar.
His demands were clear. He wanted a Ganga Protection Act, legal recognition for a Ganga Bhakti Parishad that would have a say in decisions affecting the river, a halt to proposed hydropower projects in the upper Ganga basin, and tougher action against illegal mining, sand extraction and activities that disrupted the river’s natural flow.
Throughout the fast, he continued writing letters to the country’s highest authorities. He argued that protecting the Ganga meant restoring its natural flow, not simply cleaning its surface.
For months, he survived mainly on honey and water. As his condition worsened, he stopped drinking water as well and refused intravenous support.
On the 111th day of his fast, he died.
Did his sacrifice change anything?
The Ganga Protection Act that Agrawal envisioned was never passed in the form he had proposed. Yet one of the ideas he championed — that a healthy river needs uninterrupted flow, not just clean water — continues to shape conversations around river conservation.
Today, many of those defending the Ganga are ordinary citizens who may never have met Agrawal but share his belief that rivers need people willing to protect them.
In Patna, engineer Shubham Kumar started the Being Helper Foundation after beginning with solo Sunday clean-up drives along the riverbank. The initiative has since grown into a volunteer network of more than 1,100 people. According to the organisation, it has removed over 1.4 lakh kg of plastic waste, recycled more than 2 lakh plastic bottles, distributed thousands of dustbins, and expanded its work to cities including Varanasi and Ranchi.
In Uttarakhand, Project Aviral works to reduce plastic pollution in Haridwar and Rishikesh by promoting waste segregation, supporting municipal waste management and encouraging residents and pilgrims to keep the river clean.
As Ganga flows through major cities like Kanpur, Varanasi, and into West Bengal, pollution levels drastically increase, making the water unfit for bathing. Photograph: (Julie McCarthy/NPR)
Scientists have also joined the effort. Earlier this year, researchers from Kolkata’s Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre trekked 310 km from Gomukh to Haridwar, collecting plastic waste from remote Himalayan stretches, cleaning ghats and working with local communities to spread awareness about river pollution.
Their expedition removed hundreds of kilograms of non-biodegradable waste while highlighting that pollution begins even near the glacier where the Ganga originates.
None of these efforts alone fulfils the vision Agrawal spent a decade fighting for. They cannot replace the legal protections he sought or resolve every challenge facing the river.
But together, they carry forward the spirit of his movement.
His final protest was never only about one law. It was about reminding India that protecting the Ganga cannot be the government’s responsibility alone.
It also depends on scientists, volunteers, communities and ordinary citizens who believe a river is far more than the water it carries. It is a living ecosystem that sustains millions of lives, and its future depends on all of us.
