G. D. Agrawal Biography 
G. D. Agrawal was an environmentalist from Uttar Pradesh, who lost his life for fighting for the life of Holy Ganges. He died on 11 October 2018. He was on a fast since 22 June 2018, demanding government to act on its promises to clean and save river Ganga. Earlier too he has undertaken tasks of fasting many times, for the cause of the holy river when new development projects came in, and he finally lost his life at the age of 87 fighting for one such reason. Also known as Sant Swami Sanand and Swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand, he was an environmental engineer, one of the major and senior figures of this field.
Sant Swami Sanand was born on 20 July 1932 in Kandhla, Muzaffarnagar district, Uttar Pradesh. He was born into a farmer’s family. He graduated in civil engineering from the University of Roorkee, and remained member secretary of the Central Pollution Control Board during 1979-80, as a part of his profession as an engineer. He began his professional career as a design engineer in the Uttar Pradesh state Irrigation Department. While at service, he conducted research work in environmental engineering to get his PhD from University of California at Berkeley. Since then he has authored many columns in publications related to environment and issues.
He was the first member-secretary of the Government of India's Central Pollution Control Board. He also served as the head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at IIT Kanpur. After his retirement he continued with his social activities as an environmentalist to save river Ganga and similar projects. He became a Hindi monk and took the name Swami Gyanswaroop Sanand in 2011. Anil Agarwal was one among his prominent students.
Published: October 16, 2018
Updated: October 16, 2018
