UDTR Global Rights of Nature Radar

Reconstructing the Public Trust: River Integrity as a Public Fiduciary Purpose in Indian Law

Identification

Public canonical key

doi:10.3390/laws15050127

Authors

Debarati Halder · Subhajit Basu · Sreelakshmy Panthanpulakkil Balakrishnan · Arya Sandilya

Reported year

2026

Reported language

en

Source type

article

First detected

2026-11-09T19:04:47.850799+00:00

Last metadata observation

2026-11-09T19:18:58.650613+00:00

Last HTTP verification

Not checked

Institutions reported by the source

Parul University · University of Leeds

Reported affiliation countries

GB · IN

Documentary abstract — original language

Indian environmental law does not recognise or remedy cumulative injury to rivers that function as interconnected ecological systems and are understood as sacred through religious meanings, institutions and practices. Existing law regulates injury source by source, treats river degradation as diffuse public harm and assumes that orthodox public trust protects ecological interests. Neither fragmented regulation nor legal personality addresses cumulative harm, restoration or institutional responsibility. Through a cumulative-injury analysis of the rivers of Thrissur, Kerala, this article reconstructs public trust as sacred public trust. Protecting ecological integrity and restoring it where injury has occurred becomes a public fiduciary purpose; the river is the legally protected object of that purpose; the State remains the primary trustee. Temple-linked institutions incur practice-specific duties only where their legally structured responsibilities and material control extend to river-affecting practices. Sacred public trust treats sacred status as neither creating legal obligation by itself nor precluding secular regulation. Instead, it translates the authority and material influence of sacred institutions into ecologically accountable duties grounded in existing constitutional and public law foundations, and specifies which bodies owe which duties, what constitutes a breach, and which forum and remedies apply. It thereby addresses cumulative river injury without invoking legal personhood.

Identifiers

DOI

10.3390/laws15050127

OPENALEX

W7214783097

Documentary context

Documentary family

Scholarship

Source-reported types

article

Natural entities mentioned

River

Entity mentions are not evidence of legal recognition. Jurisdiction studied is separate from author affiliation country.

Sources

OpenAlex · Record 1 · Record 2

• DOI · https://doi.org/10.3390/laws15050127
• OpenAlex · https://openalex.org/W7214783097

Documented bibliographic relations

Source-declared references and links; they do not establish legal support or UGLC qualification. Up to 20 outgoing references are displayed.

• openalex:w1496094549 · CITES
• openalex:w1957527559 · CITES
• openalex:w2066291880 · CITES
• openalex:w2105427329 · CITES
• openalex:w2156566634 · CITES
• Environmental Justice in India: The National Green Tribunal and Expert Members · CITES
• openalex:w2195838442 · CITES
• openalex:w2285473499 · CITES
• openalex:w2475057636 · CITES
• openalex:w2619638988 · CITES
• openalex:w2766971051 · CITES
• Creating legal rights for rivers: Lessons from Australia, New Zealand, and India · CITES
• openalex:w2793362266 · CITES
• The changing face of river management in Victoria: The Yarra River Protection (Wilip-gin Birrarung murron) Act 2017 (Vic) · CITES
• River Goddesses, Personhood and Rights of Nature: Implications for Spiritual Ecology · CITES
• Constitutional law, ecosystems, and indigenous peoples in Colombia: biocultural rights and legal subjects · CITES
• openalex:w3043218581 · CITES
• Legal rights for the Turag: rivers as living entities in Bangladesh · CITES
• openalex:w3205761353 · CITES
• openalex:w3208566537 · CITES

0 incoming references within the detected corpus

Documentary status

Relevance pending

Library

This identity is not yet included in the Legal Library.