chandigarh rotaract club chandigarh himalayan with an aim to raise awareness about veganism and animal welfare kick started a twoday vegan food festival at the university institute of engineering and technology uiet on saturdaythe event which is being termed as a bold step towards spreading awareness about vegetarianism veganism and animal conservation had a host of food stalls from different parts of the city and the nearby states selling vegan foods like soya milk oreo shakes vegan chocolate cakes tofu balls vegan tikka platter among others with preparations mainly from plant and plantbased products like soya coconut milk among others it is a huge misconception among people especially indians that milk is essential for our body as a complete food but that is not true a lot of people just consume milk for its calcium but actually more than 70 of the worlds population is lactose intolerant and hence milk and milk products create some kind of damage to their power of digestion or the rest of the functioning of their body said meghna federation of indian animal protection organisations fiopameghna the campaign coordinator for living free a five year old panindia campaign that is dedicated to promote vegan lifestyle all over india said when we started five years ago in 2012 we were only present in five cities but now we have spread to 63 cities indians argue about the nutrition of milk against veganism not knowing a thing about the rampant cruelty in the milk industry where only the female cows and buffaloes are kept and the male calves are sent directly to the leather industry for slaughter the cows are also artificially inseminated over and over again to produce more milk vegan food has health ethical and environmental benefits added meghnaa stall from society for the prevention of cruelty to animals spca was also setup with really young rescue stray dogs to promote the culture of adoption and increasing awareness among masses to adopt and not shop for pets the founder of the chandigarh chapter of spca inder sandhu said most of the pups here at spca are motherless and have a high mortality rate because no one is there to comfort them and love them due to which they lose their will to live hence we ask residents to hold these pups to give them the confidence to live again we want people to understand that stray dogs are just as beautiful and healthy as a differently reared breed