Guwahati, Oct 16 (IANS): An Assamese doctor who uses Quranic verses to popularize the need for birth control left for Australia Wednesday to take part in a meeting to promote vasectomy.

Illias Ali, a professor of surgery at the Guwahati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), is the only Indian to attend the Friday event at Adelaide on the occasion of the first World Vasectomy Day.

The objective of the event is to popularize vasectomy among males, to lessen the burden of family planning on women and to accelerate the process of stabilizing the global population.

Ali has applied birth control measures on more than 40,000 people in Assam, 43 percent of them Muslims.

"I have been advocating vasectomy to control the population. It's great that the method is being accepted globally," he said before his departure to Australia.

The doctor explains why India needs a leaner but qualitative population to be a world leader.

Citing examples of Islamic countries such as Iran where birth control is a huge success, he also espouses contraception methods for women and campaigns against bigamy.