The Hindu : Campaign to reduce meat consumption

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 22, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Campaign to reduce meat consumption

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI, MARCH 21. Members of the Bharatiya Prani Mithra Sangh began a signature campaign on Saturday to encourage people to give up consumption of meat, observing the day as the World Meatout Day.

Kicking off the campaign at Sowcarpet here, the members urged people to be signatories to an effort to reduce meat consumption and, eventually, give it up. They collected signatures from the Chennai Central railway station, Thambu Chetty Street and Flower Bazaar areas. Besides, handbills have been sent to 50 schools, six colleges and 50 restaurants in and around the city to encourage them to give up meat consumption, said V. Subramanian, secretary, Jana Kalyan.

Gauhar Azeez, secretary of the sangh, said at the end of the campaign, a database of the signatories would be sent to The Great American Meatout, a United States-based organisation advocating vegetarianism, which would send appreciation letters to the individuals. The campaign will last till Tuesday.

Ms. Azeez said studies revealed that one pound of meat consumes at least 1,600 litres of water till the time it was served. "People can try to keep off meat, at least for a day. In these days of water scarcity, it will surely help Chennai." She criticised the Chennai Corporation for turning a blind eye to the illegal slaughter of animals at every street corner.

Although there were three slaughter houses in the city, they were not hygienically maintained. On the contrary, in Mumbai, there is one slaughter house at Devanar with a capacity of housing 10,000 animals at a time. The 126-acre facility has 600 butchers working in two shifts and 18 doctors. The meat shops in Mumbai only have the licence to sell meat, she added.

The handbills distributed by the sangh members suggested that giving up the meat-eating habit would significantly reduce the risk for heart diseases, stroke and cancer. In the longer run, it would help preserve forests and grasslands and reduce pollution of soil and water.

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