March 21, 2017

The Uttarakhand state curt in India classified the Yamuna and Ganges rivers as living organisms and vested legal rights to them. The Hindustan Time paper reported this on Tuesday 21 st of March. “This means that from now on, the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers will be treated as living creatures, - one of the lawyers explained the situation. – But their interests will be represented by specially selected people.” The court already appointed the representatives of the rivers. The appointed were the Head of the State Programme for Cleaning the Ganges riverbed, the Main Secretary of the Uttarakhand State and the General Prosecutor In addition, the judges included in the same resolution an obligation to the official New Deli to establish special authorities within eight weeks, who will undertake the issues of cleaning the rivers. The Ganges River is the third largest river in the world, which is sacred in Hinduism religion. It’s headwaters are located in the Uttarakhand state, and it runs through the territories of several states and flows into the Bengal Gulf. The Ganges waters are used for irrigation and drinking. For the past few years, the water of the Ganges have been seriously impaired from contamination from industrial waste. Yamuna is the largest tributary of the Ganges River.

On the 15 th of March 2017, the third largest river in New Zealand Wanghanui River was the first water object in the world to obtain the same legal rights as humans. This resolution was taken upon requirement of the Maori tribe, who esteem this river. Thus, any damage caused to it will be equalled to any damage caused to the tribe. In addition, the government and the tribe appointed two guardians for the Whanganui River