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PUNJAB, INDIA, September 6, 2004: In Kapurthala district of Punjab, Baba Balbir Singh Seechewal is popularly called the “ecological saint.” Seechewal is on a unique mission to clean up the 110-mile-long Kali Bein rivulet and shore up its embankment. While the state government couldn’t afford to undertake the task due to the sheer scale of effort and resources required, 42-year-old Seechewal, who heads a little-known religious sect, mobilized the residents of villages close to the lost rivulet for kar seva by invoking its religious sanctity, says this article. Seechewal launched into the project for the revival of the Kali Bein at Sultanpur Lodhi, where Guru Nanak spent time and is believed to have attained enlightenment while bathing in the Bein. With the religious and historical significance of the rivulet forgotten, it had turned into a weed-choked, garbage dump.



Three years ago, Seechewal began by cleaning the 2-mile-long, stretch of the Bein between two historic gurdwaras at Sultanpur Lodhi. In less than two years the ugly site was turned into a beautiful landscape. But the fresh water still eluded the Bein because its source had long dried up. This changed when Seechewal mobilized his followers and local people. Soon villages, pitched in with workers and machinery. The volunteers manually removed hundreds of tons of water hyacinth, while the farmers used their tractors to dredge out the silt from the bottom to widen and deepen the Bein’s course. For the first time in living memory, the Bein gurgled with water in June last year. “Having cleaned the Bein themselves, the people will not let it become polluted or go dry again,” says Seehewal. The ecological benefits from the Bein’s revival are evident. The drying up of the one-time perennial channel had led to waterlogging in the villages upstream, while the catchment areas downstream witnessed a steady decline in the water table. The trend has been reversed since fresh water started flowing in it. Seechewal is now focusing on the next phase of the kar seva on the last 8-mile stretch beyond Sultanpur Lodhi.

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