The Yamuna and Ganges rivers in India were designated "living creatures" by a court in the state of Uttarakhand in 2017.
The High Court of Uttarakhand, India, ruled on March 20, 2017, that "the rivers Ganga and Yamuna, and all their tributaries...are declared as juristic/legal persons/living entities having the status of a legal person with all corresponding rights, duties, and liabilities of a living person in order to preserve and conserve river Ganga and Yamuna." The public celebration of this decision derived legitimacy from global discourses and legislative movements granting "rights to Nature," but it ignored other human plans for water, most notably the ambition to centralise control of all basin extractions and uses under a single authority.
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