Sacred rivers in India gain legal status as human
Court ruling aims to clean the Ganges and Yamuna
NEW DELHI // A court in northern India granted the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, considered sacred by about a billion Indians, the same legal rights as a human being. Uttarakhand state’s high court ruled on Monday that the two rivers would be accorded the status of living human entities. That means that if anyone harms or pollutes either river, the law would view it as no different from harming a person. Judges Rajeev Sharma and Alok Singh said the Ganges and Yamuna rivers and their tributaries are “legal and living entities having the status of a legal person with all corresponding rights, duties and liabilities”.
They cited the example of New Zealand’s Whanganui River, revered by the indigenous Maori people. The Whanganui was declared a living entity with full legal rights by the New Zealand government last week.
The Uttarakhand court, in the Himalayan resort town of Nainital, also appointed three officials to act as legal custodians responsible for conserving and protecting the waterways.
The case came up in court after officials complained that the governments of Uttarakhand and neighbouring Uttar Pradesh were not cooperating with federal government efforts to set up a panel to protect the Ganges.
The court ordered the establishment of the Ganga management board and for it to begin work within three months.
Environment activists say many rivers across India have become dirtier because of the free flow of city sewage, farming pesticides and industrial waste into waterways despite laws against polluting.
Officials say the Yamuna is tainted with sewage and industrial pollution. In some places, it has stagnated to the point that it no longer supports fish or other forms of aquatic life. Water from the Yamuna is chemically treated before being supplied as drinking water to Delhi’s 19 million residents.