‘Take care of your health by taking care of planet’

Experts exhort people to plant more trees, reduce dependence on motorised vehicles

Pointing out that there is a link between the health of the planet and that of people, ‘People’s doctor’ Kurapati Sudhakar on Thursday stressed the need for living in harmony with nature and called for collective efforts to reduce pollution.

Leading the 72nd World Health Day celebrations at the PVRMB high school in Ongole on Thursday, the 50-year-old medical practitioner quoted WHO estimates and said over 13 million people died every year due to avoidable environmental causes.

After distributing bicycles to students of State-run schools in Ram Nagar here to reduce the dropout rate among them, the noted ENT specialist in the city, who has been pedalling to his clinic on the Kurnool road every day for the last 12 years, said the climate crisis posed a major health threat to humanity.

“It is not just sedentary lifestyle that is deleterious to people. One has to understand that the quality of air and water also have an adverse impact on our health,” Dr. Sudhkar said referring to reports about how air pollution has accentuated the breathing problem in asthma patients and also caused lung cancer.

Our responsibility does not end with planting saplings. One should also take good care to nurture them, said the cyclist-doctor, who has turned Mamaidpalem area on the city outskirts into a mini-forest by planting over 500 mixed species of saplings.

Speaking at a medical camp organised by the Society for Training and Employment Promotion here on the occasion, STEP Director Ravikumar said: “Our planet’s health affects ours very much.”