The aim of this paper is to show how questions related to the environment and religion may sometimes overlap in Indian judiciary practice. Courts in India are sometimes called upon to make a ruling about writ petitions which involve promoters of public works (hydroelectric projects, dams, tourist resorts, etc.) whom villagers accuse of not only spoiling a natural environment but of damaging a place where a village god allegedly lives. I discuss one example of these writ petitions that I followed up during my fieldwork at Himachal Pradesh High Court in Shimla. The case concerns the building of a water tank near a natural source supposedly inhabited by jogni (powerful feminine beings). Based on ethnographic material and court files, the paper shows how nature is presented in these petitions both in ecological terms, as a resource with an intrinsic value that has to be regulated by law, and in terms of a place over which gods have specific rights. a Generous support for research leading to this article was provided by the programme "Uomo e natura nel pensiero e nella storia sociale dell'India" funded by the Ministero dell'Istruzione dell'Università e della Ricerca, and also the programme "Presence d'Esprits", funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR). b CNRS, Centre d'Études Himalayennes.