Murder most foul: polluted Indian river reported dead despite 'living entity' status

After the Yamuna river, a tributary to the Ganges, was granted the accolade, it made sense for activists to tell police that somebody had killed it

One morning in late March, Brij Khandelwal called the Agra police to report an attempted murder.

Days before, the high court in India's Uttarakhand state had issued a landmark judgment declaring the Yamuna river - and another of India's holiest waterways, the Ganges - "living entities".