Dantiwada hosts veterinarians' symposium

palanpur: "we have left only four per cent of land for grazing animals as against 40 per cent in pre-independent india," said veterinary scientist and deputy director general of animal sciences, indian council of agricultural research kiran singh. so the animal world, including wildlife, was in danger, he warned. talking of the plight of animal world, he said the avarice of man has snatched away every thing, even the animals' right to survive.on the other hand we complain cattle come on the road and cause traffic problem. the three-day 18th national symposium jointly organised by the indian association of veterinary pathology and gujarat agricultural university (gau) ended here on saturday with a resolution to prepare for 'current trend and challenges to the livestock and poultry diseases including wildlife crisis in 21st century'. nearly 150 veterinarians drawn from different states pledged to dedicate research for the betterment of animals. of 200 papers discussed in the symposium 10 were entirely on wild animals. jayarama shrinivas gowada and vijay sarthi, both from bangalore, bagged dr c m singh award and were felicitated by vice-chancellor m h mehta for the best publication of research papers in the iavp journal for 2000. earlier gau vice-chancellor m h mehta underlined the importance of animals in our life. recalling the ancient practices, he said the very name of gujarat has been derived from the word gujar which means cattle keepers- nomads who moved along with their animals from place to place. it is necessary for a healthy society to have healthy livestock. he emphasised on a disease-free status for the livestock and expressed concern over the increasing nuisance of stray blue bucks and pigs that caused havoc by damaging crops. he hoped the large gathering would come out with a pragmatic solution related to diagnosis and control of diseases by harnessing technology to combat the diseases. in his inaugural address, union minister of state for agriculture shripad naik said, "sustainable economy could be achieved by quality consciousness among farmers". he suggested that research-based findings should percolate among the farmers. he claimed over 70 per cent of livestock wealth was owned by 67 per cent of marginal farmers, landless labour and nomads and three fourths of the milk products was contributed by weaker section. agriculture minister purushottam rupala stressed the need for better dealing with wildlife. gujarat was the only place which still has its pride possession of lions in gir. he expressed pleasure that the symposium would review problems faced by the wildlife and zoo in its perspective. he promised all help for the research centres in gujarat. campus director girish patel gave an account of sardar krushinagar dantiwada, the main campus of gau. symposium chairman m c desai, general secretary p l kaul, lila kaul and students of the college of veterinary and animal husbandry took enormous pains to make the indian panorama of veterinary pathologists a success. besides president of indian association of veterinary pathology, dr j l vagad, secretary general r n s gowda many veterinarians took part in the symptom.