Healthy animals are necessary for a healthy world: President Murmu

“Whenever in doubt, think of the voiceless creatures for which you joined this profession”. This was President Droupadi Murmu’s advice as she addressed the 11th convocation ceremony of the Indian Veterinary Research Institute at Bareilly today.

The President is on a two day visit to Uttar Pradesh.

Murmu said that ours was a culture that saw the divine in all creatures. Our saints and sages had deep connections with animals. Moreover, many divine forms worshiped in Hinduism also took on animal forms.

She spoke of her own growing up years amidst nature and animals which had taught her that they were all part of the same family. She touched upon her years as a child when there were many animals in villages but lamented that these had vanished over the years and that they were being replaced by machines.

When we were growing up, said the President, animals were our strength, for farmers could not work without them. And thus even the word ‘animal’, she said, did not sit well with her. They were in fact our ‘wealth’ and that humans could not think of life without them.

She said that the COVID-19 pandemic had taught us the far reaching devastation that consumerism could cause to both the human and animal world.

Women did most of the work in agriculture and in livestock management, she said. And thus it was imperative that they be consulted when conducting studies on animals. She also expressed her happiness at the fact that among the graduates, many were females.

She called upon students to use the start-up incubator in the institute to become entrepreneurs in the area. They must find local, low cost alternatives that worked well in the Indian conditions and also find out substitutes for such medicines/fertilisers which were negatively impacting animals.

The human ability to think and act should be used to for the welfare of all, she said.

The President also emphasised that healthy animals were necessary for a healthy world.

India