Turning liability into asset
Abhisht Kusum Gupta, a Noida-based environmental activist, has spearheaded legal campaigns to clean up the Indo-Gangetic river system, which includes the Indus and Ganga—two of the world’s ten most polluted rivers. His advocacy spans key tributaries and regional rivers across Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, and Rajasthan, including the five sister rivers of Punjab—Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej—which are vital to the basin’s ecology and livelihoods.
In March 2022, Gupta petitioned the National Green Tribunal (NGT) over severe contamination of the Hindon River, which receives around 250 million litres per day (MLD) of untreated sewage in addition to industrial effluents. The NGT ordered the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board to take immediate remedial action. Hearings exposed widespread industrial non-compliance within the Hindon basin, further accelerating its ecological decline.
He has also acted to protect the Mandakini River in Uttarakhand from waste mismanagement and illegal construction, and to address the Yamuna River’s chronic pollution—particularly the Kondli drain’s daily discharge of 215 MLD of untreated sewage in Delhi, which also impacts Haryana and Uttar Pradesh downstream.
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