MUMBAI (Reuters) - One of India’s most prominent environmental activists has died at the age of 86 after more than 15 weeks of a hunger strike to protest against government inaction on cleaning up the Ganges. 
 
 Activists of the youth wing of India's main opposition Congress party light candles during a vigil for environmental activist GD Agarwal also known as Swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand after he passed away while he was on a fast-unto-death seeking cleansing of the Ganges river, in New Delhi, India, October 11, 2018. REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis 
 
 The death of G.D. Agarwal, who held a PhD in environmental engineering from the University of California in Berkeley, prompted an outpouring of grief and tributes from activists. 
 
 “His demise has shut one of the leading voices of criticism of the government on the Ganga pollution,” said environmentalist Rakesh Jaiswal. “He was one of the most important figures in this fight.” 
 
 The Ganges, worshipped by Hindus, is India’s largest river system and one of its most polluted. Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014 with a pledge to clean up the 1,570-mile-long river, used for water by 400 million people, but increasingly choked with domestic and industrial waste. 
 
 A flagship five-year project he launched in 2015 has fallen flat, critics say. Results of a federal audit released in Dec. 2017 revealed lapses in planning and financial management of the scheme and said under a quarter of the funds for the programme had been spent in two years. 
 
 Agarwal began his fast on June 22 in the northern Haridwar city, demanding a law to protect the river and the scrapping of construction of hydroelectric projects along its banks that have destroyed its natural flow. 
 
 In a letter to Modi in August, he threatened to fast unto death unless action was taken. 
 
 Modi said on Twitter he was “saddened” by Agarwal’s death. “His passion towards learning, education, saving the environment, particularly Ganga cleaning, will always be remembered. My condolences.” 
 
 India’s opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi also paid tribute. “To save the Ganga is to save the country. We will take his fight forward,” he wrote on Twitter. 
 
 Ravi Kant, director of the AIIMS hospital in the northern city of Hrishikesh, on the banks of the Ganges, said Agarwal died of a cardiac arrest on Thursday. 
 
 He had been forcibly taken to the hospital by police a day before, hours after he stopped drinking water. Television footage showed Agarwal, clad in a saffron robe, being picked up by police officers along with the chair he was sitting on, as he kicked his legs in protest. 
 
 Some activists on Friday demanded an independent investigation into Agarwal’s death. 
 
 “I don’t think the government made any honest effort to fulfil his demands,” said Ravi Chopra, an environmentalist. ||||| Sant Gopaldas had been fasting at Triveni and Bag ghats of the Ganga in Rishikesh since June 24 
 
 Two days after Ganga activist GD Agarwal died at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Rishikesh, another activist, 36-year-old Sant Gopaldas was rushed to the premier institute early Saturday. 
 
 He was brought to the hospital at 3.45 am and admitted to the emergency ward, acting medical superintendent of the institute Brijendra Singh said. He is currently being treated at the endocrinology ward. 
 
 Dr Meenakshi Dhar, head the team of doctors attending to him said he was dehydrated. His sugar level has come down to 65. He has refused to eat anything or undergo medical treatment and is being given intravenous fluids, she added. 
 
 The administration has given permission to AIIMS authorities to take any measures they deem fit to save his life, including force-feeding. 
 
 Sant Gopaldas began his fast against mining operations at the Ganga river bed. He had been fasting at Triveni and Bag ghats of the Ganga in Rishikesh since June 24, his follower Arvind Hatwal said.
– An 86-year-old Indian activist died Thursday during a hunger strike to protest pollution in the Ganges River, Reuters reports. G.D. Agarwal was more than 15 weeks into a fast that he began on June 22. He was demanding a law to protect the Ganges—India's largest waterway, sacred to Hindus, which is filthy with domestic and industrial waste—as well as the discontinuing of construction of hydroelectrical projects. Another activist tells Reuters that Agarwal's death "has shut one of the leading voices of criticism of the government on the Ganga pollution." The day before he died, Agarwal was forcibly taken to the hospital after refusing to drink water. Officers reportedly picked him up in the chair he was sitting in as he kicked his legs in protest. He later died of cardiac arrest, per Reuters. Another activist, 36-year-old Sant Gopaldas, was hospitalized Saturday after starting a hunger strike on June 24, NDTV reports. Gopaldas was protesting mining operations along the Ganges. Authorities have reportedly given hospital staff the OK to force-feed him.