• Eman Hayaat Siddiqui

India, a blessed country where we consider its rich natural sources of water through numerous rivers and lakes. The country has rightly been called the “Land of Rivers” more evidently people worship the rivers as gods and goddesses. All the Hindus have deep Astha in rivers Ganga and Yamuna and they collectively connect with these rivers. Rivers Ganga and Yamuna are central to the existence of half of Indian population and their health and wellbeing. The rivers have provided both physical and spiritual sustenance to all of us from time immemorial. Rivers Ganga and Yamuna have spiritual and physical sustenance. They support and assist both the life and natural resources and health and well-being of the entire community. But what's ironical is that in spite of our profound respect and reverence for our rivers, we've failed to maintain their purity, cleanliness and also their physical well-being. Be it Ganga, Yamuna, Brahmaputra or Kaveri or the other river flowing within the soil of our motherland, not one river is free from pollution. River pollution has been causing serious water-borne diseases and health problems affecting human population furthermore as animals, fish, and birds within the environment. Indian courts are critical of more than three decades of state efforts to scrub up the Ganges, a 2,500km waterway named after the Hindu goddess Ganga. the newest clean-up initiative had set 2018 as its deadline, one that water ministry officials have reportedly conceded is unlikely to be met. This is the very first time in India that rivers are recognised as a living entity with its own rights and values and given the position of a legal/juristic person. the researcher, through this paper tried to grasp the implications of granting rivers personhood and further the extent to which it is beneficial to them as far as putting a curb on their pollution is concerned. Also to analyse how far is making them persons really effective in undoing the destruction with regard to article 21, 48A and 51A of the Indian Constitution.

Rivers, Water Pollution, Personhood, Environment, India.

"GRANTING PERSONHOOD TO RIVERS: Whether Legal Rights Reverse The Trajectory Of Destruction", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 3, page no.389-393, March-2019, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1903N49.pdf

"GRANTING PERSONHOOD TO RIVERS: Whether Legal Rights Reverse The Trajectory Of Destruction", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 3, page no. pp389-393, March-2019, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1903N49.pdf