The quaint town of Ranthambhore - the land of tigers - will soon have an added attraction. Besides safaris to watch the big cat in the forest, you would be able to come face-to-face with stunning species, historical personalities and live animals, albeit in a museum.
The upcoming Rajiv Gandhi Regional Museum of Natural History in Ramsinghpura, Sawai Madhopur, is conceived as a non-formal centre for environmental education and creation of public awareness on conservation of nature and natural resources. This would be the fourth such museum in the country after Mysore, Bhopal and Bhubaneswar.
According to an official, "The museum at Ranthambhore is a Union ministry of environment & forest project and is estimated to come up with an investment of Rs 30 crore. With the foundation stone of the building having been laid by the Vice-President M Hamid Ansari in December 2007, the museum is about 70 per cent complete. Spread over an area of 7.42 acres, the two-floor museum building will also house a special dormitory for visiting scientists.
"The museum proposes to undertake the task of communication and creating public awareness through the potential medium of exhibits and educational activities. It would provide an understanding of the diversity of life on earth, the factors responsible for their well being, man's dependence upon nature and the necessity to keep our ecological heritage free from damage and destruction to ensure sustainable development, with special emphasis on the western arid region of India," he said.
The National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) owes its genesis to the time of Late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who while considering new projects to be initiated in 1972 on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of India's Independence, decided that the country needs a museum of natural history to depict its flora, fauna and mineral wealth and to provide an out-of-school facility for children's education and to promote environmental awareness among the masses.
"The NMNH, an institution devoted to environmental education, derives its strength principally from theme-based exhibition galleries, experiential resource centers such as discovery room, activity room, and educational activities, with the intention to depict the country's rich natural heritage and natural history (geology, botany and zoology). The museum is designed to be a self sustainable state-of-art facility that will be an institution recognized nationally and internationally in the field of environment education and professional natural history museology," the source added.
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