Many countries and animal welfare organizations have blamed the consumption of wildlife meat by the Chinese for this pandemic. Many counties also believe that such an outbreak cannot originate in the future in their own country because of eating habits that do not involve the consumption of wildlife animals. India is one such country where the consumption of wildlife meat is very rare. As a matter of fact, according to a survey India has the largest pure vegetarian population in the world. In another report, India was ranked as the second ‘most vegetarian’ country in the world in the year 2009. Despite these eating habits, India has the potential to become the epicenter of the next global COVID-19 like pandemic. The main reasons include rampant deforestation and human overpopulation in India.
I have listed above various scientific reasons explaining how India could become the birthplace of the next outbreak or pandemic. Considering the fact that currently 17.7% of all the humans on earth live in India, any outbreak or epidemic originating in India will have major global implications.