Professor GD Agrawal had issued a press release from AIIMS Rishikesh today at 6.45am with his signature. https://t.co/30LBpSRJq9 — TOI Cities (@TOICitiesNews) 1539255032000

IITian-turned-seer professor GD Agarwal dies after fasting for 112 days for a clean Ganga

HARIDWAR: Activist G D Agrawal, who was on an indefinite fast since June 22 demanding to clean Ganga and maintain free flow of the river, died at the AIIMS hospital in Rishikesh on Thursday. The 86-year-old former IIT-Kanpur professor suffered a cardiac arrest in the afternoon.The veteran Ganga crusader who had taken sanyas in 2011 and was thereafter known as Swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand had been on a diet of honey and water since June this year. He had announced on Tuesday that he would give up even water and sacrifice his life for Ganga.“My fast will end with my death,” he had said at a press conference at Matri Sadan in Haridwar on Tuesday, while blaming the Centre and the state government for failing to clean Ganga and banning mining and hydropower projects on the river. On Wednesday, he was forcibly shifted to AIIMS Rishikesh by the state government.In a video shot on Wednesday, Agrawal is seen resisting as police try to lift him up. Policemen soon overcome his feeble attempts to resist and carry him to an ambulance which transports him to AIIMS Rishikesh, the video shows.Doctors at the hospital said that he died around 2pm on Thursday after a cardiac arrest. Agrawal’s death certificate signed by Dr Venkatesh S Pal, assistant professor, general medicine, lists coronary artery disease-moderate ventricular dysfunction, degenerative vascular heart disease, systemic hypertension, starvation-dehydration, hypokalemia and hypoglycaemia and direct inguinal hernia as reasons for his death.A letter purportedly written by the activist hours before his death dated October 11, 6.45am stated that he had allowed AIIMS doctors to administer potassium to him. He also thanked the doctors for being supportive towards his “tapasya for conservation and rejuvenation of Ganga”.Agrawal had been ordained as a seer in July 2011 in Banaras under the guidance of Swami Avimukteshwaranand, the official representative of Shankracharya Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati. Avimukteshwaranand has asked the state government to give custody of Agrawal’s body to Kashi Hindu University Allahabad. He has also alleged that Agrawal was murdered and an inquiry be set up to probe his death.The Haridwar district administration meanwhile said that every possible step had been taken to save the environmentalist. Officials said that several dignitaries, including cabinet minister Uma Bharti, Haridwar MP Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and representatives of the central government had urged him to end his fast, but he was adamant to continue his protest.Agrawal’s demands included steps to be taken to make Ganga free-flowing, hydroelectric projects along the tributaries of the Ganga be banned and the Ganga Protection Management Act be enacted. He first sat on a fast in Uttarkashi in 2008 and discontinued it after the then government assured him that it would set up a committee to look into his demands for Ganga conservation. He sat on a fast again in January 2009, this time in Delhi. Soon after, the government formed the National Ganga River Basin Authority. In 2010, Agrawal sat on another fast at Matri Sadan ashram in Haridwar demanding closure of three major hydropower projects on Ganga. The central government accepted his demands and passed the order to close the Loharinag Pala, Maneri and Bhairon Ghati projects after which he ended his fast.In 2012 and later in 2013, he sat on month-long fasts alleging inaction by the National Ganga River Basin Authority.Agrawal is the second seer to have died while campaigning for Ganga in less than a decade. In June 2011, Haridwar-based Matri Sadan seer Swami Nigamananda Saraswati had died at the Jolly Grant Himalayan Institute Hospital in Dehradun after fasting for 114 days. He had been demanding immediate stop to quarrying in Ganga at Haridwar.