The Ripple Effect in Action!

‘On the bank of the Ganges’ by John Gleich (1879-?)

Awash as we are with negative news, here’s some great positive news. A while back New Zealand made the enlightened move of giving full legal rights to a river. Now India has followed suit:

NEW DELHI (AP) — A court in northern India has granted the same legal rights as a human to the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, considered sacred by nearly a billion Indians.

Uttarakhand state’s High Court ruled Monday that the two rivers be accorded the status of living human entities, meaning that if anyone harms or pollutes either river, the law would view it as no different from harming a person.

The judges 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.  Read full Associated Press article here.

The Ganges at Rishikesh