'Because people eat meat...': IIT Mandi Director on why cloudbursts, landslides happen in Himachal

Asking students not to eat non-veg food, IIT Mandi Director Laxmidhar Behera said that non-stop butchering of animals is causing landslides and cloudbursts and this will lead to a “significant downfall" of Himachal Pradesh.

In a video of his address to the institute, which is now doing rounds on social media, Behera says, “it is having landslides, cloudbursts and many other things again and again, these are all effects of cruelty on animals…people eat meat."

“Himachal Pradesh will have a significant downfall…if we do. Non-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 added.

He further claimed that to become good human beings, one has to stop eating meat. He also asked students to take a vow not to eat meat.

This is not the first time Behera has stir 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".