The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court declared Tamil Nadu's Tamirabharani (Porunai) River a deity, conferring on it the status of a legal person to shield it from pollution. The order came in July 2026 in the Sivanupandian v. District Collector, Tirunelveli case, which highlighted pollution from funeral rites and waste dumping on the banks. Within three weeks, about 90 tonnes of clothes, 2 tonnes of ash and 3 tonnes of other waste were removed. The ruling draws on Earth Jurisprudence. Earlier, the Uttarakhand High Court's 2017 legal-person status for the Ganga and Yamuna was stayed by the Supreme Court.