Vegetarians are no longer in the majority in India.

In a country whose religions and economy encouraged a vegetarian lifestyle there has been a huge change.

Economic growth can be attributed with raising the living standards of Indians as well as their expectations to indulge in more Western habits.

Food in India was once a symbol of tradition. Now food is a symbol of status.

Yes, even though there are some 300 million vegetarians here, in the new affluent urban India, meat has become a status symbol. In the U.S. vegetarianism is a lifestyle choice. In India, once, it wasn’t even an “ism” — it was just the way some of us were brought up for generations, a part of our cultural DNA.

The impact of all this meat eating on the environment is posing a whole new set of problems.

Rising incidents of heart disease aside, pollution and pharmaceutical toxicity need to be addressed to keep us all safe.