Reviving India’s river goddesses: ecocide, the human right to a healthy environment and rights of nature
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Three emerging legal developments: criminalising Ecocide, recognising a human right to a healthy environment, and recognising rights of nature, could play a crucial role in reorienting legal systems to address the ‘triple planetary crisis’ of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. This paper first explains these three legal developments and discusses the interplay between them. It then goes on to examine how these developments apply or might apply in the domestic context of India. For this purpose, it first considers the situation of the rivers Ganga and Yamuna, which have a key role in the geography and culture of the country and are revered as goddesses by followers of the Hindu faith. Despite this, both rivers are heavily polluted and legal efforts to apply the human right to a healthy environment and rights of nature have not been successful in improving their plight. In this context, the paper responds to the following questions: What difference might a crime of Ecocide make to the pollution of the rivers? What is the likelihood of such a crime being adopted in India? What alternative ways can be put forward for river protection in India?
Authors: Gita Parihar, Lovleen Bhullar
Institution: University of Cambridge
Language: English
Topic: Environmental law and policy
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4415504901