Rivers no longer live; they merely exist. They exist as relics of their glory days, when rivers were wild, mysterious and free -- or as characters in their own story, told through poetry and music. Now they linger in inherited nostalgia. In 2009, the High Court granted rivers the legal status of “living entities”. But in reality, almost all the country’s rivers are struggling to survive under the weight of encroachment, pollution and sand-lifting. On World Rivers Day, we look into the current state of our rivers and how these once majestic rivers are being held hostage to greed and negligence.