Education

• LLB,  Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam
• LLM in International Legal Studies,  South Asian University, New Delhi
• MA in Public Administration, IGNOU
• PhD in Environmental Law, SOAS University of London (Commonwealth Scholar)

Profile

Gayathri previously was Assistant Professor at the National Law University, New Delhi, where she also coordinated the NLU-D – SOAS Summer School on Climate Law and Justice supported by the British Council Exploratory Grant. She has also worked as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in SOAS.

She is a member of specialist groups of the IUCN-WCEL ( International Union for Conservation of Nature – World Commission on Environmental Law). These groups include ‘Water and Wetland Group’, ‘Early Career Specialists Group’, and ‘Compliance and Enforcement Group’, as well as the Law, Environment and Development Centre at SOAS. She is also an editor on transboundary water issues with the Global Water Forum.  She has published articles and book chapters on various dimensions of water law in journals and books published by OUP, Brill, Routledge and EE. She has also presented her work at different institutions, including Vermont Law School, UCL, KCL and Sussex University.

Research Interests

Environmental Law, Water Law and Policy, Water Justice, Tort Law and Human Rights.

Publications

Book (solo-authored):

• Gayathri D Naik (July, 2024). Water Justice and Groundwater Subsidies in India: Equitable and Sustainable Access and Regulation, Routledge (Taylor & Francis).

Journal Articles:

• Gayathri D. Naik (2025). ‘In Re: T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad v UoI [2024] INSC 997,’ Journal of Law and Public Policy: Vol. 9: Iss. 1, Article 8
• Gayathri D. Naik (2025). ‘Water Management and Conservation in India Fostering Water Justice: Arguing for Adopting Just Sustainability in Water Governance,’ The Journal of Indian Law and Society, Volume 15(1),
• Gayathri D. Naik. ‘Granting A Lawful Water Entitlement To Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems In India: As Legal Persons Or With The State As Trustee,’ The Journal of Water Law [special issue on ‘Groundwater for the Ecosystem] (2025), Volume 28, Issue 6, Lawtext Publishing.
• Gayathri D. Naik, ‘Rivers as Legal Personalities in India and Bangladesh From an Eco-Centric Perspective: Balancing Developmental Needs and Environmental Protection’ [special issue on Water Law] (2022) 6 Chinese Journal of Environmental Law  253 ( co-authored).
• Gayathri D. Naik, (2022). ‘Role of Courts in Ensuring Water Justice in India: Brasilia Declaration on Water Justice and Beyond’ (2022) 11(1) Christ University Law Journal, 11(1) 59 ( Invited Article).
• Gayathri D. Naik, ‘Right to Environment in India: From a Gender Perspective’, (2020) 21 (3) Vermont Journal of Environmental Law 371.
• Gayathri D. Naik, ‘Groundwater Regulation in India: Applicability of Public Trust Doctrine and Right to Participation in Decision Making to Achieve Right to Water’ (2018) 2 Asian YB Hum Rts & Human L 327.

Book Chapters:

• Gayathri D.Naik, ‘Realising sustainable development and water justice in India through procedural justice’ in Alan Diduck, Kirit Patel, Aruna Malik (ed) Advancing Environmental Justice for Marginalised Communities in India: Progress, Challenges and Opportunities (Routledge 2021) 53-64.; ISBN 9780367692810
• Gayathri D Naik, ‘Saga of Indo-US Climate Contestation and Co-operation: A Legal Analysis’ in Svetha Dhaliwal(ed) Indo-US Relations
  Steering through the Changing World Order (Routledge 2021) 60-80.; ISBN 9781032253374(co-authored).
• Gayathri D Naik, ‘The Human Right to Water in India and Pakistan: Legal Recognition, Gaps, and Grassroots Struggles’ in James R. May, Ben Boer, Claudia Ituarte-Lima, Stellina Jolly, Soledad García Muñoz, Melanie Jean Murcott, and Birgit Peters(ed) Elgar Concise Encyclopedia of Human Rights and the Environment (Edward Elgar 2026 forthcoming)
• Gayathri D Naik, ‘Gender, Water, and Intersectionality in India: Revisiting Water Governance to Mainstream Women’s voices’ in Professor Rowena Maguire and Katherine Keane, (ed) Research Handbook on Feminist Approaches to Environmental Law (Edward Elgar 2026 forthcoming)
• Gayathri D Naik, ‘Water Management in Asia Pacific: A comparative study from Ganges Basin and Mekong Basin’ in Joseph Chacko Chennattuserry, John Joseph Puthenkalam, Suma Sarojini, Guangwei Huang (ed) ‘Sustaining our Planet’s Water Resources: An Asia Pacific Perspective of SDG6 (Springer Nature 2026 forthcoming)[co-authored with Dr Vidya Ann Jacob]

Book Reviews:

• Book Review: Raghav Kishore, The (Un)Governable City: Productive Failure in the Making of Colonial Delhi, 1858-1911 ( Orient BlackSwan. 2020) LSE Review of Books (August 5 2021)
• Book Review: Lucas Chancel, Unsustainable Inequalities: Social Justice and the Environment (Harvard University Press 2020) LSE Review of Books (March 5 2021)
• Book Review: Anindya Bhukta, Legal Protection for Traditional Knowledge: Towards A New Law for Indigenous Intellectual Property (Emerald Publishing 2020) LSE Review of Books (December 10, 2020)
• Book Review: Navroz K. Dubash (ed), India in a Warming World: Integrating Climate Change and Development (OUP 2020) LSE Review of Books (April 27 2020)
• Book Review: Andrea Ballestero, A Future History of Water (Duke University Press 2019) LSE Review of Books (November 4 2019)
• Book review : Ijaz Hussain, ‘Indus Water Treaty, Political and Legal Dimensions’ [OUP 2017] South Asia@LSE (March 15 2019)
• Gayathri D Naik, Review of Gabriel Eckstein, The International Law of Transboundary Groundwater Resources (Earthscan 2017) in Asia Pacific Journal of Environmental Law (2019), Volume 22 Issue 1, Edward Elgar) 176.; ISSN: 18758258
• Book review: Jagannath Prasad Mishra, “Madan Mohan Malaviya and the Indian Freedom Movement” [OUP 2016] South Asia@LSE (December 4 2018)
• Gayathri D Naik, Review of Leslie -Anne Duvic-Paoli Prevention Principle in International Environmental Law (CUP 2018) pp:390 ISBN:978-1-108-42941-2 9 in (2018) 29 Yearbook of International Environmental Law 522; ISSN 0965-1721.

Expert Commentary:

• India’s Groundwater Problem is No Longer Scarcity: It is Insolvency 

Media/Blog articles:

• ‘Striking the balance between growth and green priorities,’ Deccan Herald, February 6, 2026
• ‘Supreme Court Extends Environmental Duties To Corporate Sector,’ Deccan Herald, December 28, 2025
• ‘As India’s groundwater runs dry, calls for reform grow,’  Dialogue Earth, June 12, 2025
• ‘The Brasília Declaration on water justice: What it means for transboundary water governance in South Asia’, Global Water Forum, October 30, 2020.
• ‘Procedural Water Justice and the Brasília Declaration – Right to Information, Participation, and Access to Justice’, IUCN-WCEL, June 26 2020.
• ‘India must stop deforesting its mountains if it wants to fight floods’, The Conversation U.K. (September 10 2019)
• ‘India: why collecting water turns millions of women into second-class citizens’, The Conversation U.K. (October 17, 2018)

Invited Panellist:

• Invited Panelist for ‘Collaboration, Knowledge and the Social Dimensions of Sustainability’, Nirma International Conference of Law (NICL) 2026, February 2026
• Panelist for ‘Sustainability in Higher and Professional Education’ organized by Azim Premji University, and Bengaluru Sustainability Forum on 9 January 2026
• Panelist for ‘Groundwater Regulations and Climate Change in South Asia’ during 2nd Paro Forum on ‘Water Management and Climate Change: Bridging Knowledge to Action’ organized by JSW Law Climate Change & Environmental Law Centre during 22-24 February, 2025 in JSW Law, Bhutan.
• Panelist for Roundtable on ‘Climate Change Education: In Bengaluru and Beyond’ on 3 May 2024, in NCBS, hosted jointly by the National Centre for Biological Sciences and Project TROP ICSU – a global climate change education project of the International Union of Biological Sciences and the Centre for Sustainability, Environment, and Climate Change, FLAME University, Pune, India.

Invited Lectures:

• Lecture on ‘Water Governance and Regulation in India”on 14 July 2025 during the National Training programme on “Audit of Water Pollution and Sustainable Use of Water” from 14^th to 18^th July, 2025 at iCED, Jaipur for the Indian Accounts and Audit Service Officers.
• Lecture on ‘Water Governance in India and Role of the State: Neoliberalist influences versus Constitutional Obligations’ in Department of Economics, Christ University, Bengaluru as a part of ‘Towards Development’ Lecture Series on 23 Jan 2024.
• Lecture on ‘More Than a Toilet and Target ODF: Intersections of Gender, and Rights to Water, Sanitation and Inclusive Education’ in Department of Law, Christ University, Bengaluru, as  a part of the University’s  Sustainability Week Programme on 12 Feb 2024.
• Lectures on “Nexus Between Environmental Justice and Socioeconomic Rights: The Role of Judiciary” and the “Evolution of Environment Law: Where are the Concerns of Global South”  during 16th International Residential School – 2024 on Economic, Social and Development Rights (ESDR) at the Kathmandu Law School focusing on the theme “Decolonizing Law and Justice: Embracing Diverse Perspectives of International Law including Climate Justice.” held from 10-30th November, 2024.