Plantation drive on World Environment Day Veterinary Doctors to pay tribute fellow Vets who had expired due to COVID-19
Dr. Umesh Chandra Sharma, President Veterinary Council of India (VCI) and President, Indian Veterinary Association (IVA) had appealed to all veterinary doctors of the country to celebrate this year’s World Environment Day by planting saplings in their hospital premises as an innovative way to pay tribute to the Veterinary Doctors who had lost their lives in the unprecedented COVID-19 Pandemic. Shri Giriraj Singh Ji, Hon’ble Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying and Shri Sanjeev Balyan Ji, Hon’ble Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying had lauded these noble efforts of the veterinarians all over the country through their video message. 5th of June is kept aside every year to remind us all of the urgent need to protect our environment. This year, the theme was “Ecosystem Restoration”. The importance of Environment day is amplified is these global crisis of COVID-19 pandemic.
Mass plantation drive was carried out by Veterinary doctors by planting 5 saplings in each and every Veterinary Institutes/Hospitals/Dispensaries. Over 50,000 veterinarians all over the country actively participated and planted trees/saplings as a tribute to veterinary doctors who had lost their lives due to COVID.
Over 100 veterinary doctors had already lost their lives while discharging their duties during the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier, Veterinary services was declared as essential services by Govt. of India under Disaster Management Act and subsequently followed by States and UTs. Veterinary services were fully functional and all veterinary hospital and dispensaries were open during Lock down-1 & ongoing Lock down-2 Phases. Also door to door services like Vaccination, Artificial Insemination were given by Veterinary doctors and Para-vets. Indian Veterinary Association had already demanded priority vaccination to Vets/Para-vets and to declare Vets as Front Line worker. https://www.pashudhanpraharee.com/dr-umesh-sharma-new-chief-of-veterinary-council-of-indiavci/
Veterinarians choose the novel idea of paying tribute to the fellow workers by plantation drive on World Environment Day which also aids in environment restoration.
Dr. Dipankar Seth
Zonal Secretary, IVA (HQ)
NOTE: Contents approved by President, IVA http://ivaofficial.org/
