• Rajendra Singh, environmental activist based in Rajasthan, has been conferred the prestigious Stockholm Water Prize for the year 2015 for his innovative water restoration efforts and courage to empower communities in Indian villages.
• The non-governmental organisation Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS), which Rajendra Singh leads as its general secretary, has since 1985 built some 8,600 earthen check dams, or johads and other water conservation structures to collect rainwater for the dry seasons, has brought water back to over 1,000 villages and revived five rivers in Rajasthan, Arvari, Ruparel, Sarsa, Bhagani and Jahajwali
• Rajendra Singh, who has undertaken extensive water conservation efforts in drought-prone eastern Rajasthan, wins the 2001 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership.
• In 2008, The Guardian named him amongst its list of "50 people who could save the planet".

In 1985, Alwar district of Rajasthan was largely dry and barren, because of large scale deforestation and mining. Another reason for the dwindling water availalibility was also the slow abandoning of traditional water conservation techniques, like building check dams, or johads. Villagers started relying on "modern" bore wells, which simply sucked the groundwater up. These bored wells had to be dug deeper and deeper within a few years, pushing underground water table further down each time, till they went dry.

At this point as a student on project assignment , Rajendars singh happened to visit the place. There he met a village elder, Mangu Lal Patel, who argued "water was a bigger issue to address in rural Rajasthan than education". He asked him to join him and work with his hands rather than behaving like "educated" city folks who came, studied and then went back; later encouraged him to work on a johad, earthen check dams, which have been traditionally used to store rainwater and recharge groundwater, a technique which had been abandoned in previous decades.

As a result, the area had no ground water since previous five years and was officially declared a "dark zone". Rajendra Singh heeded the village elders request and stayed back with them after the project assignment was over . Eventually with the help of a few local youths he started desilting the Gopalpura johad, lying neglected after years of disuse. When the monsoon arrived that year, the johad filled up and soon wells which had been dry for years had water. Villagers pitched in and in the next three years, they made it 15 feet deep. This was the first step and other success stories followed. As of now TBS under Rajendra singh's leadership is into water conservation efforts in Madhya pradesh, Gujarath and Andhra Pradesh.