Visually appealing Gallery to be open on all days; entry fee not decided

Mysore/Mysuru: The Cauvery Gallery that has been set up at Karnataka Exhibition Authority (KEA) Grounds showcasing the life, culture and biodiversity of the River from its birth at Talacauvery in Kodagu till it reaches the Bay of Bengal at Poompuhar in Tamil Nadu opened to the public last evening.

District Minister S.T. Somashekar did the honours and went around the Gallery with the fine points, concepts and technology being explained to him by K. Sadhana Attavar, Director, Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum, Bengaluru.

The Gallery will be open throughout the year and the entry fee has not yet been decided. Mostly it will be Rs. 20 or at the most Rs. 30 per visitor, he said.

There are many multimedia features and electronic display at the Gallery that provides visitors with an immersive experience of life and culture along the River. “For people of Mysuru, Mandya and Bengaluru, the Gallery holds utmost importance as the River is the lifeline. In addition, it will be a valuable resource for research scholars,” he said.

The 19,000 sq.ft visually appealing Gallery with many 3-D presentations has been built jointly by Karnataka Knowledge Commission and Tourism Department. It has been modelled as per the design, specifications and imagination of the National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI) at a cost of Rs. 3.5 crore.

The project is based on research conducted by the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM). Officials of NASI and the State Tourism Department had signed an agreement to establish the Gallery in the KEA complex (at Kannada Karanji).

It is the first river Gallery in South India and the third such one in the country. There is a Gallery for River Brahmaputra in Guwahati and River Ganga has a Gallery in Allahabad. The Gallery, through multimedia and 3-D features, highlights the geological and ecological characteristics of the Cauvery River apart from projecting the social and cultural characteristic features of civilisation that have evolved along the river bank.

At the Mysuru Gallery, there are many artefacts and life-size dolls that narrate the story of the River. Pictures, live visuals and models of the river flowing from one part to another criss-crossing the hills and plains will narrate the Cauvery story.

Apart from allowing a visitor to have a glimpse of visually appealing scenes all through the journey of the river, the Gallery will screen movies and documentaries on Cauvery. After the viewers see the Gallery, there will be a 20-minute short film on Cauvery. The overall message will be conserving the river and increasing green cover around the river for sustenance. In addition, places and industries that are polluting the river are shown to spread awareness. Along with the visual representation of various communities that have a close affinity with Cauvery like the Kodava community that finds representation in the Gallery, prominent waterfalls like Shimsha, rugged terrain like Mekedatu and picturesque Hogennakkal have found a place.

Mayor Shivakumar, Dy. Mayor Dr. G. Roopa, City BJP President T.S. Srivatsa, KEA Chairman Mirle Srinivas Gowda and CEO K. Rudresh were present.