High Priest of the Ganga

These include getting three defunct water treatment plants running in Patna, stopping dead bodies being dumped into the river by the Patna Medical College Hospital and getting two of the nine defunct crematoriums running.

Guddu Baba has also highlighted the condition of patients at PMCH and of garbage disposal in the city.

His last supplementary affidavit was on how patients of PMCH are allotted only Rs 3 daily for meals. The High Court has now raised it to Rs 25 this week. Every other week Guddu Baba – who used to be known as Vikas Chandra in his days as a college teacher in West Champaran – dressed in a shirt and trousers strides into the court and sees the Bihar government brought to its knees on the applications he files. Guddu Baba — born in Allahabad and brought up in Bihar — argues his own case in crisp English and with a passion that no lawyer can muster.

‘‘The government doesn’t recognise me but I will continue to fight. The only reason I have been fighting for so long and so hard is because I have no liabilities. If I had children they would have been kidnapped by now so that I stop what I’m doing,’’ he says.

His first love remains the Ganga and the environmentalist in him overshadows the priest. ‘‘When I’m not able to save the Ganga I have no right to make it dirty by bathing in it,’’ he says.

Guddu Baba’s transformation from college teacher to priest to environmentalist started in West Champaran after his brother got into a dispute with the then DM and subsequently their family was harassed. Guddu Baba quit his five-year-old teaching job and came to Patna.

He started living on the banks of the Ganga at one of the crematoriums and soon under the influence of a tantrik, started performing final rites at the crematorium he has now adopted as his home. His life changed again when after a nine day havan he saw a poor man getting into the sewage drain next to the Ganga and bathing there.

‘‘I asked the 57-year-old man how he could get into this water. He told me: ‘‘This is my dharm patni and this is the only Ganga in my life. I don’t have money to pay the boatman and go to the other side.’ These words moved me a lot. That’s when I knew my destiny,’’ he says.

On January 4, 2000 Guddu Baba started his Ganga crusade, set up the Ganga Bachaon Andolan and filed his petition. ‘‘I don’t believe in the NGO culture so I don’t ask for donations. I work on goodwill of the people. The government doesn’t recognise me but society does,’’ he says.

His fans are many. Money for court fees and photocopies come from people like Suman Kumar who runs a shop at one of the ghats.

In May 2000, Guddu Baba got photographs of over two dozen dead bodies lying behind PMCH which is situated on the banks of the Ganga and led a human chain of 100 people carrying the photographs through the streets of Patna asking that the dead be cremated with dignity. The court took notice and passed orders. Next he took up dumping of medical waste at the PMCH. The result: an incinerator was installed. He is now fighting against the dumping of animals into the Ganga by the Patna Municipal Corporation.

Now his efforts have been recognised in Delhi. He was invited by the environment department of Delhi University to talk on his work and the centre has invited him to duplicate his success in Delhi with the Yamuna. So what does he think of the plan to interlink rivers in the county? ‘‘Rivers have been given by nature and you shouldn’t ever play around with nature,’’ is his prompt reply.