Amritlal Vegad

Amritlal Vegad (3 October 1928 – 6 July 2018) was a noted Gujarati and Hindi language writer and painter living in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India.

Biography Amritlal was born to Govamal Jivan Vegad, who was a railway contractor hailing from village Kumbhariya in Kutch belonging to a small but enterprising Mestri community of Kutch. Govamal Jivan settled in Jabalpur, while working as railway contractor for Bengal Nagpur Railway laying railway lines in Gondia – Jabalpur section in year 1906 with fellow Mistri contractors.

Work Amritlal Vegad was awarded in 2004 the Sahitya Akademi Award for his travelogue – Saundaryani Nadi Narmada and also Madhya Pradesh Rajya Sahitya Award & Rashtrapati Award for his various works. He is also a recipient of the Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan award in Hindi. for which he has earned several awards. Other books are "Amritasya Narmada" and "Teere Teere Narmada". These books have been translated into Gujarati (by himself), English, Bengali and Marathi. He started his first foot-travel along the route of river Narmada known as parikrama in 1977 aged 49 and did his last parikrama of river in 1999 aged of 71.

His books are adorned with sketches and collages made by him personally, during the travel, which have been widely appreciated as works of art by critics at exhibitions.

Amritlal Vegad was also noted for his works as an environmental activist, raising the issues of pollution of rivers like Narmada and others in State of Madhya Pradesh. He was the President of Narmada Samagra, an institution working against pollution of rivers and improving the facilities of public toilet and baths, along bathing ghats of rivers, in an effort to improve sanitation and reduce pollution of river banks and river waters.

Death He died on 6 July 2018.