CHENNAI: The village of Thalambedu, about 60 kilometres from Chennai on the way to Puducherry, is a “typical rural setting that has no semblance of urbanisation,” as someone who visits them often put it. They should consider themselves exceptionally fortunate, because very soon they will not only be provided with solar panels to harness power but also be taught how to use it. “This is just a beginning,” said Dr Elankumaran Subbiah cryptically. True enough, when you take into account the fact that they will also be getting a Village Information System, Community Centre and eventually a Primary Health Centre. All of this, courtesy a small team of dedicated veterinary professors from the Virginia-Maryland Institute of Veterinary Sciences, VirginiaTech University.Dr Subbiah and Dr Sriranganathan from the varsity, have brought a team of six women vet students to visit veterinary colleges across TN and also experience several ‘rural settings’ in the process. “I must confess we have never seen anything like this (Thalambedu), with animals tied to a post and grazing in an uncontrolled environment,” said vet student Jessica Tresseder, part of the team that signed up in March to visit Tamil Nadu, “But it sort of grows on you,” she added. After a quick tour of the village, the team conducted a health camp for all the livestock there and administered vaccines, de-worming medicine and other quick fixes to set the ball rolling. “It takes a while to understand how difficult it is for people to get their animals treated when the nearest vet is 60km away,” explained Subbiah.The first step is the setting up of the Village Information Centre, for which the computers have been provided by TANUVAS, said the assistant professor. “We have agreed to provide all the resources and expertise that we can manage to give, so that in due course of time the villagers have a sustainable source of income and are able to provide jobs for others, maybe even contribute to India's GDP,” he said hopefully. The project will play out in phases and will be jointly monitored by the local varsity and the vets from Maryland, “We have actually planned to make it a twin project, by also developing a village in the US and see what results we can achieve,” explained Dr Sriranganathan, who migrated from Bangalore four decades ago. Once the project takes shape, the eventual plan is to extend it to one village a year and follow the same model. The students’ involvement is completely up to them, said Subbiah shifting the onus off the faculty. “This is our way of giving back to society and anyone who is interested can join us.” Cathryn Doyle, another student sounded hopeful of returning to India despite the “humidity and the loud horns”, because she wants to pursue research in tuberculosis in elephants; commoner here than in the US, apparently. “For that matter, working in the Madras Veterinary College Clinic for two weeks has shown us so many animal afflictions that we have only read about, not seen,” said Jessica Romine, in jest.Headed for Namakkal, Tiruchy, Ooty, Mudhumalai and Trivandrum as part of their visit, they are taking away something from Chennai that will hold them in good stead: “We have learnt the word Podhum (enough) because we always use it when people are serving us food,” said Romine.
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