A group of cyclists carrying the message 'Prakriti hi Prabhu hai' — 'Nature itself is God' — pedalled their way into Patna on Saturday, 17 October 2026, and Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary made time for them. The CM met the yatra members at Lok Sevak Avas, Patna, honouring a remarkable journey that stretches nearly 3,000 kilometres from Janakpur Dham in Nepal all the way to Uttarakhand.

Padma Bhushan Dr. Anil Prakash Joshi's conservation ride

Leading the expedition is Padma Bhushan Dr. Anil Prakash Joshi, the Himalayan ecologist and founder of HESCO — an organisation with decades of work on sustainable mountain development. Dr. Joshi's choice to begin at Janakpur Dham, the Ramayana-linked cultural site in Nepal, is deliberate: it frames nature conservation within a civilisational and spiritual vocabulary that resonates deeply across the Gangetic plains. The route then cuts through Bihar before ascending into the Himalayas, tracing the very river systems the yatra is fighting to protect.

CM Choudhary described the initiative as 'praśaṃsanīya' — commendable — calling it a meaningful step toward water conservation, environmental protection, and river rejuvenation. Bihar, crisscrossed by major tributaries of the Ganga, sits squarely in the middle of this ecological story.

Why this route, why now

The cycle yatra straddles an international border — starting in Nepal and ending in an Indian Himalayan state — reflecting the shared fate of the sub-Himalayan river basin communities on both sides. The Ganga and its network of tributaries that flow through Bihar are also the focus of the Union government's flagship Namami Gange programme, launched in 2014, and the National Mission for Clean Ganga, established in 2011. The yatra draws on the same cultural-meets-conservation playbook that Indian environmental campaigns have used for decades: a long-distance journey, a religious touchstone, and a message simple enough to carry across hundreds of villages.

Indian environmental campaigns have long understood that a yatra — whether on foot or on two wheels — travels farther in public imagination than a policy paper ever can. At roughly 3,000 kilometres, this one does not lack for ambition.

Patna as a waypoint, not just a stopover

The CM's personal meeting at Lok Sevak Avas signals more than courtesy. Bihar is downstream of Himalayan glaciers and upstream of every water-security anxiety that climate change intensifies year by year. A state government blessing — even an informal one — adds political weight to what might otherwise be a civil-society gesture. Whether that translates into formal state commitments on water conservation or cross-border environmental cooperation with Nepal remains the next mile of this journey.

The riders still have Uttarakhand ahead of them. The harder climb — turning a 3,000-kilometre message into lasting policy — starts when the cycling stops.