The Hindu Lit for Life 2025 Day 2 highlights [Video]

Earth is hurtling towards disaster, said Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, who recently served as World Health Organization’s Chief Scientist, in conversation with Ramya Kannan, The Hindu’s health editor and the Tamil Nadu bureau chief. 

“One of the reasons is due to three or four interconnected things, mainly due to loss of biodiversity.”

Loss of biodiversity, climate change, air pollution, water pollution, noise pollution, are interconnected, said Dr. Soumya Swaminathan. “This is why the concept of ‘One Health’ where we look at all living beings as we are one planet. There are many examples of species, due to drugs that human beings produced and used in livestock, we have lost 97% of vultures. The loss of vultures then affects the cycle of waste. If we don’t have vultures, then the animal carcasses spread diseases.”

To a question on whether in a country that is so dense, whether we will be able to handle a concept known as ‘One Health’, Indian Administrative Service …