Bhubaneswar, Oct 4 (Agency) A little imbalance in the animal-plant biomass equilibrium will cause havoc, eminent biologist Prof. Aditya Prasad Dash warned. What is needed today is development without destruction and production without pollution,” Prof. Dash, former Regional Advisor to the World Health Organisation (WHO) for South-East Region, said while speaking at a program at Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan Deemed to be University (SOA) here organised to mark the World Animal Day. The need of the hour is to ensure that development should take place without destruction and pollution to ensure the safety of planet earth, he said. Prof. Dash said the entire earth was dominated by plant biomass with animals and humans accounting for a miniscule 0.4 percent and 0.01 percent of it respectively. He said climate change is happening everywhere and affecting the animal kingdom adding that industrialization and deforestation are largely responsible for this change. The program was organised jointly by the Institute of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry (IVSAH), faculty of veterinary sciences of SOA, and Odisha Livestock Development Society.
Stating that humankind has to strive for ensuring a protected environment for the animal kingdom, Prof. Dash focused on the highly evolved community of ants, termites and bees. Some creatures have strong societies and ants and termites have a special symbiotic relationship with aphids, the insects which secrete a sweet liquid known as honeydew, he said. He said this secretion was sugar rich and favoured by the insects as a food source. The bees are interesting creatures and research on their behavior has found the worker bee resorts to a unique form of communication to share information on the location of a food source with its nest-mates.
“This is known as the waggle dance,” Prof Dash said The scientist who discovered the waggle dance used only an empty matchbox to understand the language of bees while Ronald Ross who found the malarial parasite used a simple microscope to make the discovery. “This shows that you don’t need sophisticated infrastructure or high-end instruments to get a Nobel Prize,” he said. SOA Vice Chancellor P K Nanda said animals also reciprocate their appreciation if cared for as love was a universal language. “We have this experience with our pets who often sacrifice their lives to save others,” he said adding “we should learn from animals and birds and pick up their positive traits.”