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The Uttarakhand high court has recognized the Ganga and the Yamuna as so-called living entities, giving the rivers that have seen years of damage at the hands of humans, a legal voice. Animals, for instance, aren’t considered living entities by law. Only humans are. “This order may be seen as a precedent and come across as strange but it is not any different from the status of being a legal entity as in the case of family trusts or a company,” said Raj Panjwani, a practicing lawyer at the National Green Tribunal (NGT).