Tourism Minister impressed by visual river story narrated at the Gallery

Mysore/Mysuru: The Cauvery Gallery being set up at Karnataka Exhibition Authority premises (Dasara Expo Grounds) in city will be open for visitors soon. “The Gallery showcases the life, culture and biodiversity along the River from its birth in Kodagu till it reaches the Bay of Bengal,” said Minister for Tourism, Ecology and Environment C.P. Yogeeshwar. 

He was visiting the Dasara Exhibition Grounds last evening to see the available options for promoting tourism in Mysuru. Impressed by the multimedia features and electronic display at the Gallery that provides visitors an immersive experience of life and culture along the Cauvery River, the Minister said that the Gallery will be a centre of attraction. 

Karnataka Knowledge Commission is setting up the Gallery along with the Department of Tourism. It would highlight the geological and ecological characteristics of Cauvery River apart from projecting the social and cultural characteristic features of civilisation that have evolved along the river bank.

Mysuru’s Cauvery Gallery will be the third in the country. There is a Gallery for River Brahmaputra in Guwahati and River Ganga has a Gallery in Allahabad. Cauvery Gallery is coming up at Kannada Karanji Building in an area of 15,000 square feet and works are almost complete. 

Here, artefacts and dolls will tell the story of the River from Talacauvery (birthplace in Kodagu) to Poompuhar (where Cauvery meets the sea in Tamil Nadu). Pictures, live visuals, models of the river flowing from one part to another criss-crossing the hills and plains will narrate the Cauvery story.

The Minister visited the main section of the Gallery that is a three-dimensional theatre where movies and documentaries on Cauvery will be screened. Yogeeshwar was told by the representatives of the Knowledge Commission that movies on conserving the river, increasing green cover around the river for sustenance, places and industries polluting the river will be shown to spread awareness.  

Along with the visual representation of various communities that have a close affinity with Cauvery like the Kodava community that find representation in the Gallery, prominent waterfalls like Shimsha, rugged terrain like Mekedatu and picturesque Hogennakal will find prominence, the Minister was told while explaining the progress of the works. 

Later speaking to reporters, Yogeeshwar said that the Cauvery Gallery would turn a must-visit tourist destination in the coming days and plans are on the anvil to develop the Karnataka Exhibition Grounds as an art centre with an allocation of Rs. 150 crore so that all-year-round programmes are held.