Engineer from Noida brings over 10 lakes back to life

According to Tanwar, "The revival of a lake takes anywhere between Rs. 2 to Rs. 25 lakh, depending on its size. I used to shell out money from my pocket. My friends who are active in the cause also contributed equally."

"But to become more financially sustainable, we have started approaching organizations to make use of their CSR activities," he added.

The 26-year-old engineer comes from a family of farmers and in 2012, he saw the adverse effects of climate change upfront.

The lakes and wells he once dived into were disappearing.

"The lake that once had fresh, clean water, was now choking with garbage. It was covered in such filth that it was difficult to see the water beneath," Tanwar told The Better India.

"The area had started stinking, and I also noticed that the biodiversity around the lake was diminishing. It was a call for concern, and I tried to answer it," Tanwar added.

He decided to start a campaign.

Tanwar, a Class 12 student then, used to teach younger students and started speaking to them about the condition of lakes and how to restore them.

However, when they tried to explain to others about the situation, the children met with smirks, as no one believed that a little household garbage could destroy the water-body.

Tanwar then decided to talk about water conservation door-to-door.

Last year, he told Edex Live, "The bore well of 25 feet was dried up in a year, making the villagers dig further to 150 ft."

Meanwhile, Tanwar and his students started gathering people and discussed the issue every Sunday at a chaupal (a commonplace).

The story of his hard work reached the ears of the then District Magistrate of Noida, NP Singh, who gave him a better platform to put out his ideas.

A 2-minute documentary, Jal chaupal, was made and shown at various theaters to raise awareness.

Later, two filters were built near the lake in Tanwar's village to stop domestic waste from entering the water body.

However, it took joint efforts of adults and children along with the man himself, and several months to clean the lake in Dadha.

And it was just a matter of time when he started getting requests from other villages to also clean their lakes.

Later, Tanwar started a Facebook campaign, #SelfieWithPond and encouraged people to post pictures with pond or lakes around them, which would serve as an inspiration.

He told TBI, "We got a great response for the campaign, which I thought would be limited only to Noida or at the most, Uttar Pradesh. But we got photos from as far as Karnataka and Tamil Nadu."