Balbir Singh Seechewal Biography 
Balbir Singh Seechewal is a social activist, environmentalist and religious leader from Punjab. He is best known for anti-river pollution campaign in Punjab, and has spearheaded this move. He has initiated many campaigns at different points of time to create awareness among people about environment hazards caused by human activities and their future effects. Known for his Community-based conservation, he single-handedly cleaned and restored 160 km long Kali Bein river of Punjab. Seechewal is his native village, where he has served as local chief or sarpanch twice. He was honoured with Padmashri by Government of India in 2017, only the second religious guru after Baba Sewa Singh from Punjab to get this honour in the role of an environmentalist.
He was born in 1962 in Seechewal, Jalandhar district, Punjab. He belongs to an agricultural family. Chanan Singh and Chanan Kaur are his parents. His early education was done at his native village and later studied at DAV College, Nakodar. He dropped out of his college, wore saffron rob and started living in a new way of life benefitting others. He turned a religious leader, who also took efforts to clean and protect environment.
Almost 17 years back in the early 2000s, Punjab’s green crusader took the challenging cleaning task of 160 km long Kali Bein river of Punjab. Rejuvenation of Kali Bein made him a popular figure in the recent times. Thousands of folk involved in this process, which converted the dead and dried up river back to life. Earlier it was a sewage drain where six towns and more than 40 villages emptied their waste into it. The Sikh holy man took the task in year 2000. In 2009, he took up a new project to save Buddha Nullah, a seasonal water stream, which runs through the Malwa region of Punjab.
Published: November 29, 2018
Updated: November 29, 2018
