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The threat of zoonotic outbreaks or diseases that jump from animals to humans is high across the world right now, according to experts at the Anil Agarwal Dialogue 2025.
A recent study found that nearly 44 per cent of the world’s population, approximately 3.5 billion people, could be exposed to zoonotic diseases.
According to Amit Khurana, Programme Director, Sustainable Food Systems, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), food systems are potential breeding grounds for zoonoses, antimicrobial resistance and also have linkages to climate change and biodiversity.
“The way we are producing food is increasingly becoming responsible for public and planetary health issues,” Khurana said during the panel discussion on February 28, 2025, the last day of the conclave.
While the world has only recently emerged from a harrowing pandemic caused by a novel coronavirus, there are many others about which humans have no knowledge.
“There are no more than 20,000 coronaviruses circulating in wildlife. But we only know about seven of them,” said Rajesh Bhatia, former director, Communicable Diseases, WHO-South East Asia Regional Office during the session The return of zoonotic diseases and outbreaks.
The most immediate threat of a worldwide pandemic at the moment is from avian influenza. Since 2024, 68 human infections of H5N1 have been reported in the USA, of which 40 have been contracted from dairy cattle, 23 from poultry farms, and the remaining four from other animals or unknown exposures.
Pranay Lal, senior advisor, Health Systems Transformation Platform, said water in Indian cities is not safe.
“There is only one city, Puri, where drinking water comes out of our taps. We need to look at pathogen outbreaks in relation to this,” he urged.
The Anil Agarwal Dialogue 2025 is an annual conclave of journalists from India who write on environment and development issues. Over 80 journalists from across the country have participated this time in this one-of-its-kind platform, organised every year by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) at its facility, the Anil Agarwal Environment Training Institute, located in Nimli, Rajasthan.