Indian environmental discourse often merges the Shakti as in divine feminine power with Prakriti which is nature to suggest that women are nature’s custodians and lead sustainable development. This article asks if the sacred equation gives standing to women and to nature. It combines the hermeneutic textual analysis and critical discourse analysis of classical texts, rituals, court decisions, policy documents and movement accounts. Read through Nancy Fraser’s status model of recognition and Bina Agarwal’s feminist environmentalism, the evidence shows a pattern of veneration without recognition. Both environment and women are symbolically praised and kept in a higher position and still denied the actual authority, protection and acknowledgment. In the cases examined, this pattern is visible in four forms: idealization, displacement, substitution and iconization. Although the counter arguments against this tradition could also be seen, when a female yogini, Sulabha silences the sovereign and when certain ecological duties are not assigned to women, such instances are rarely present and are used symbolically throughout. The paper concludes that Shakti and Prakriti can move forward towards sustainable development only if reverence and veneration are converted into real recognition, decision making authority to women, substantive protection for ecosystems and acknowledgment of the labor through which women manage resources.