Doctrine of Public Trust Superimposes Secularism: Discourse with Reference to the Covid-19 Mass Deaths in India

The mass deaths in COVID-19 persuaded the human race to align their actions for the protection of environment and human health as a part and parcel of it. In India, the lack of resources and water in the river for the performance of 'final rites' ceremony of the deceased disgruntled the economically weaker sections of the community and forced them to leave the corpse without the performance of final rites ceremony. The newspaper reports about two thousand such corpses lying in the bank of holy Ganges. This situation raises the question of purity of water and the piousness of Ganges on the one side, and the probable implication on the health and ecology as a whole on the other side. This paper endeavours to state that the international instruments for protection of environment and the provisions of the Constitution of India require the State to dispose of the corpses in such a manner that prevents any further harm to the ecological integrity of the Ganges river basin and other such water bodies. It highlights the significance of public trust doctrine for protection of natural resources stating that the State could swap away the burial customs for protection of human rights and the environment. It provides the significance of holocene approach and concludes with the positive role of the State for protection of the environment.