Rights Of Nature In India: Between Symbolic Recognition And Structural Failure
- IJLLR Journal
- 5 minutes ago
- 1 min read
Vrinda Kavdia, B.B.A. LL.B. (Hons.), Jindal Global Law School, O.P. Jindal Global University (2022-2027)
ABSTRACT
In the face of an escalating ecological crisis, Indian courts have transitioned to environmental jurisprudence, reflecting an emerging ecocentric approach that extends legal personhood to rivers, animals, and ecosystems. Drawing on constitutional provisions, comparative models from Ecuador and New Zealand, and scholarly debates on legal standing, this article examines whether India’s experiment has failed in principle or in execution. It argues that the fragility of India’s rights of nature jurisprudence lies not in the concept of legal personhood itself, but in the misdesigned guardianship structures that appoint the state as both custodian and violator of nature. By analysing conflicts of interest, doctrinal uncertainty, and selective application, the paper shows how bureaucratic guardianship has rendered rights of nature largely symbolic. The article concludes that for these rights to function as meaningful tools of environmental justice, guardianship must be reimagined through participatory, community-led, and institutionally accountable frameworks that align ecological protection with constitutional environmentalism.
