Rivers unite in museum gallery
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05/05/2008
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Telegraph (Kolkata)
An exhibit at the Birla Industrial and Technological Museum. Picture by Amit Datta The next best thing to a Hooghly cruise with your child this summer could be a visit to the Birla Industrial and Technological Museum for a virtual journey through the rivers of the world. The museum is holding the exhibition to commemorate its 49th anniversary and will be open for 45 days before travelling to other cities. "Our objective is to make people aware of various rivers, their origins and their current state. We will invite students from various schools for quiz contests on the subject and bring experts to speak on the science of rivers,' museum director Jayanta Sthanapati said. The museum, on Gurusaday Road, organises two exhibitions each year. The next one will be on "Measuring our Planet' in September. Water resources minister Nandagopal Bhattacharya, who inaugurated the event on Friday, said the displays were visually appealing and informative. "One can spend quality time here looking at the excellent displays and learning about rivers.' Multimedia kiosks have been set up to explain how acid rain, industrial and agricultural pollution are ruining river systems across the world. The focus is on pollution of the Ganga because of industrial and municipal waste, bodies and animal carcasses being regularly dumped in the river. One section provides information on the 10 longest rivers of the world and the percentage of water used globally in industry, agriculture and homes. There are also panels detailing how riparian civilisations once flourished in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley in Iraq, along the Nile in Africa, and the Indus in Pakistan and India. Students from nearly 10 schools visited the exhibition on the opening day. "I learnt about rivers, types of drainage systems and the effects of global warming. I had studied all that in Class VII but the visual displays made the concepts clearer,' said Sayoni Banerjee, a student of Loreto Day School, Sealdah. "The displays showing the Ganga's journey from its origins to the point where it merges with the sea and the level of pollution are very interesting,' said Aman Kansal of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Ballygunge. An artificial coal mine with light-and-sound effects and the upgraded transport gallery are the other attractions. The transport gallery describes the evolution of transport from a wheel to supersonic jets. The exhibits include a 1926 Rolls Royce and Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose's 1925 Fiat Tipo.