SAGAR: In a remarkable tale of grit echoing Bihar’s "Mountain Man," 71-year-old tribal laborer Ajab Singh Adivasi from Imliya village in Madhya Pradesh has earned the moniker "Bundelkhand's Dashrath Manjhi" after single-handedly digging a 50-foot-deep well over a period of two years. Decades ago, driven by acute regional water scarcity that forced his children to drink unsanitary water, and deeply wounded by the humiliation his wife faced while begging for water from relatives, Ajab Singh turned to local authorities for a public well. However, administrative apathy and his inability to pay a demanded ₹5,000 bribe left him with no choice but to take matters into his own hands. Balancing daytime hard labor to feed his family with nighttime digging, he successfully fractured the rocky terrain to strike a sweet water source that today—nearly 45 years later—remains the sole reliable lifeline for over 300 neighborhood residents when official borewells run dry. Ironically, while the village survives on his historic feat, the elderly icon still fights institutional neglect, currently spending his final years manually gathering mud and bricks to repair his own dilapidated, crumbling hut after being excluded from government housing benefits.
You can watch this to see the actual 50-foot well he dug and hear more about his ongoing struggle for a proper home.