New Delhi: IIT Mandi Director Laxmidhar Behera's claim that cloudbursts and landslides in Himachal Pradesh are happening because people eat meat has stirred controversy in the state.
He asked students to take a pledge not to eat meat while claiming that landslides and cloudbursts in the state are happening because of cruelty on animals.
In a video that has gone viral on social media, Behera can be heard saying, "Himachal Pradesh will have a significant downfall...if we do. Not stop butchering animals. You are butchering animals there... the innocent animals. It has a symbiotic relationship with the degradation of the environment as well... which you cannot see right now but is there."
He further stated while addressing the students, "It is having landslides, cloudbursts and many other things again and again, these are all effects of cruelty on animals...people eat meat."
"To become good human beings, what you have to do? No to meat eating," he further said and then went on to ask the students to vow not to eat meat.
This comes just weeks after Himachal and Uttarakhand witnessed heavy destruction due to torrential rains, cloudbursts, flash floods, and landslides during monsoon from July to August.
Behera was criticised for his statement. A social media user Rahul Siddharthan shared the video on X and captioned it, "Director of an IIT. Why is Himachal having landslides? Because of unplanned construction/deforestation/climate change/all of the above? No. Because of meat-eating. Is he saying farming animals leads to deforestation? No. He says it leads to cloudbursts."
"The collapse is complete. These superstitious fools will destroy whatever little was built in 70 years," Sandeep Manudhane, an entrepreneur and IIT Delhi alumni, said on X.
Gautam Menon, a professor of biophysics, said, "In the current dispensation, having views like those of the director of IIT Mandi featured here is a feature, not a bug. It's simply sad."
This is not the first time Behera has stirred a row with his controversial comments. Last year, he hit the headlines for claiming that he was involved in an act of exorcism to rid his friend's apartment and family of "evil spirits" by chanting "holy mantras".