Anybody who paid attention during Geography classes back in school would know what landslides are and what causes them. To jog your memory, landslides are geological events characterised by the sudden and significant movement of a mass of soil, rock, or debris down a slope. They are caused by natural factors like rainfall, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or changes in slope stability.
However, the Director of IIT Mandi, Laxmidhar Behera, said that landslides are caused because people eat meat, leading to animal cruelty and that the landslides or cloudbursts in Himachal Pradesh wouldn’t occur if people stopped eating meat. According to TOI, he claimed that animal cruelty has a detrimental impact on the environment.
Here’s a look at a video wherein he makes such claims:
अच्छा इंसान बनने के लिए जरूरी है कि आप मांस नहीं खाओ…
हिमाचल में आपदा आ रही है, जमीन धंस रही है, बादल फट रहे हैं…
इन घटनाओं के पीछे मांस खाना वजह है- IIT Mandi Director pic.twitter.com/PFvs4eMobx
— Abhishek Anand Journalist 🇮🇳 (@TweetAbhishekA) September 7, 2023
“That (butchering of animals) has a symbiotic relationship with the degradation of the environment as well, which you cannot see now. The mass scale landslides and so many other things, cloudbursts, that you see again and again, these are all effects of this cruelty,” he says.
Animal cruelty, although an ethical concern and an illegal act in several parts of the world, has no direct relation to landslides.
People online slammed the IIT Mandi Director for spreading misinformation and indirectly shaming individuals for consuming meat. Here’s a look at some of the reactions:
Why is Himachal Pradesh having landslides?? Because people are eating meat. Also, meat-eaters are not ‘good human beings’.
This is how we do science at elite educational institutions in Amrit Kaal. https://t.co/n5bW59cw0c
— Advaid അദ്വൈത് (@Advaidism) September 7, 2023
Such irrational comments from a person holding an important position in an institution meant to promote scientific & technical education is disappointing. More than 70% of Indians are meat eaters and this has been a part of our Indian culture since it's beginning.#IITMandi https://t.co/fuOUq3cS1w
— Abishek Sekar (@abisheksekar) September 8, 2023
How did the ignoramus in this video ever become a IIT Director?
No wonder all Indian educational institutions are fast losing their good reputations. https://t.co/jmQvoEcUvh
— GeetV (@geetv79) September 7, 2023
This is the perils of any religious knowledge . It makes you believe anything and everything. I always wondered how many of my intellectual and well educated friends suddenly were blinded by this narrative. https://t.co/SoD7jxV3nB
— AJ (@jac8333) September 7, 2023
God save our motherland from these stupids! https://t.co/7LSvH24hhD
— Rohit Arora (@RohitAr18801182) September 7, 2023
😂😂😂😂😵💫😵💫😵💫😵💫😵💫😵💫😵💫😵💫😵💫😵💫😵💫 who made him director . Himachal is under destruction because of professors like him 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 https://t.co/wGk8QvHsXk pic.twitter.com/nyqnnmXmOx
— that GHOST (@zafarbains) September 7, 2023
Before blindly believing what ‘educated’ people say, we must fact-check such claims ourselves. After all, information is just on the tip of our fingers.