A High Court’s verdict : On Faith ,Rivers and Pollution

“You are the salt of the earth ; but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted?” - Madras High Court quoting a biblical saying about river pollution and public health.

On 9 July 2026, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court laid down a clear proposition: ‘no one has the right to pollute a water body, even in the name of religion’ , a principle obvious in theory, yet routinely disregarded in practice.

The case, Sivanupandian v. The District Collector began as a small property dispute over a mandapam near the Tamirabarani river. But Justices G.R. Swaminathan and B. Pugalendhi used the moment to look at a much larger problem: the daily dumping of ritual waste into one of Tamil Nadu's most sacred rivers. 

Thousands of devotees gather at the bathing ghats from Papanasam onwards to perform last rites for their ancestors. As part of these rituals, they discard the clothes, towels, slippers and belongings of the deceased into the water. An activist named Moorthy, who has been cleaning the river with a community group, told the court that more than a tonne of used clothes is thrown into the Tamirabarani every single day. The scale, once counted, was hard to ignore. A booklet placed before the bench recorded what was collected in just three weeks (7–28 May 2026): 86–90 tonnes of clothes, 2.2 tonnes of holy ash, 1,385 kg of plastic, 374 kg of sanitary napkins and diapers, 220 kg of glass bottles, and more. The judges called the numbers "alarming. 

The court openly acknowledged that the issue "concerns the beliefs and sentiments of millions of Hindus," and it refused to pass a sweeping ban without first hearing religious bodies, activists and devotees. Instead of ordering, it invited , asking the District Collector to make a public announcement and calling everyone to the table. But it was also firm. Leaning on Section 24 of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, Section 36 of the Tamil Nadu Public Health Act, 1939, and Article 25 of the Constitution , which makes the freedom to practise religion subject to public health , the bench held that faith cannot become a licence to destroy a shared resource. It reminded citizens of their fundamental duty under Article 51A(g) to protect rivers and wildlife. The court stated- 

“4.No one has the right to pollute a water body even in the name of religion. This can be taken as an axiomatic proposition.

6. .. Believers can do what is spiritually beneficial to them provided it has no adverse implication for ecology and does not violate the rights of the other members of the society.”

Why this is bigger than one river 

Tamirabarani is not an isolated case. It is one visible symptom of a national pattern where devotion and ecology collide, and the science backing the court's worry is substantial. 

The scale of this problem became starkly visible during the Maha Kumbh[1] in early 2025. In a report submitted to the National Green Tribunal, the Central Pollution Control Board found that the Ganga and Yamuna at Prayagraj were severely contaminated, driven largely by untreated sewage and the sheer weight of human activity. Against a safe-bathing threshold of 2,500 MPN/100 ml for faecal coliform, January tests recorded levels reaching as high as 49,000 at Sangam, 33,000 and 17,000 at Deeha Ghat on consecutive days, and 33,000 at Old Naini Bridge. The picture in the feeder drains was worse still: the Jondhwal Drain and Sasur Khaderi river hit 9.2 million MPN/100 ml — roughly 4,000 times the permissible limit , while the Rajapur and Salori drains crossed 3.5 million. Oxygen levels told the same story, with the Sasur Khaderi river recording just 1 mg/L of dissolved oxygen against the 4 mg/L minimum needed for fish and aquatic life to survive. And the failure was not for lack of effort , despite roughly ₹1,600 crore spent on sanitation, 145,000 portable toilets, decentralised treatment systems and real-time IoT monitoring, enforcement gaps and infrastructure lapses meant untreated waste kept reaching the rivers. 

The court's specific concern about synthetic clothes is also grounded. Pure cotton biodegrades; polyester does not. When these fabrics snag in the riverbed, they trap organic matter and become a breeding ground for bacteria like E. coli, while entangling protected turtles , the Indian Black Turtle and Indian Flapshell Turtle , that suffocate to death. 

And ritual pollution is not only about cloth. Research on idol immersion across Indian rivers has repeatedly found that the paints used on idols contain heavy metals like mercury, cadmium, arsenic, chromium and lead , several of them carcinogenic , while sindoor adds lead and chromium[2]. A 2025 study on the Dikrong river[3] found that immersion significantly raised pH, BOD and heavy metals such as lead and mercury, pushing them past permissible limits. The accessories thrown in alongside — polythene, thermocol, food offerings, cosmetics ,only deepen the damage. There is even a natural experiment[4]: during the COVID-19 lockdown, with festivals and immersions halted as well as industrial emissions, researchers observed that water quality improved across most Indian rivers. 

None of this requires anyone to abandon the mourning of their dead or the worship of their gods. The central point, to which the court repeatedly returned, is that while the intention behind these rituals is sacred, the method has become harmful  and methods, unlike intentions, can be changed. 

Practical solutions already exist. The Madras High Court observed that a large tank is under construction near the riverbank, where rituals may be performed and the water cleaned daily. In other regions, artificial immersion ponds have significantly reduced river contamination. A ritual conducted at a designated tank carries no less devotion than one performed in the river itself; the ancestors are honoured in either case, and the river is preserved for the crores who depend on it for drinking water.

 The Tamirabarani has sustained life for millennia and perhaps one cannot attain purity by poisoning the very water that purifies. 
 

[1] Jyoti Parsad and Sumita Singhal, 'Maha Kumbh 2025: Ganga & Yamuna's Long-Term Sustainability Depends on Continuous Monitoring, Improved Wastewater Treatment, and Public Cooperation' (Down To Earth, 21 February 2025) https://www.downtoearth.org.in/water/maha-kumbh-2025-ganga-yamunas-long-term-sustainability-depends-on-continuous-monitoring-improved-wastewater-treatment-and-public-cooperation 

[2] "Activities of idol immersion leads to heavy metal contamination in river Hooghly, Kolkata" (ScienceDirect): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0019452221002235 

[3] Yigam & Bharti (2025), "Mitigating River Pollution During Indian Festivals: The Efficacy of Artificial Idol Immersion Ponds" — Dikrong river study on pH, BOD, lead and mercury: https://www.internationaljournalssrg.org/IJCE/paper-details?Id=735 

[4] "Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Water Pollution in Indian Rivers — A Case Study" (improvement during lockdown when immersions stopped): https://arxiv.org/pdf/2303.08101 

Case Details: Sivanupandian v. The District Collector and Ors / WP(MD) No. 18560 of 2026