With no visitors during the lockdown period, science centres, zoos and museums across India are opening up their galleries and enclosures on the internet for people to see them while staying at home.
While some are hosting live streaming of animals 24x7, others are allowing citizens to take a virtual walkthrough of the museum galleries. Some are organising sky observation programs where visitors can log in to observe celestial events like the Super Pink Moon, which appeared on April 8.
The Alipore Zoo in Kolkata, the oldest in India, launched a mobile application to help people take a virtual tour last week. Citizens can see a panoramic view of the zoo, check photos and videos in their enclosures with a voice-over option to know more about a particular animal they are interested in.
The Arignar Anna Zoological Park in Chennai was the first in India to start live streaming of animals in their enclosures, almost two years back. Its webpage is now getting almost 60,000-80,000 views every day during the lockdown period.
“The page views have increased several times because of the lockdown. We now have live streaming of 14 species including tiger, lion, and hippos. There are 180 cameras installed in the zoo and animal enclosures,” Sudha Ramen, deputy director of Anna Arignar zoo, said.
{{/usCountry}}“The page views have increased several times because of the lockdown. We now have live streaming of 14 species including tiger, lion, and hippos. There are 180 cameras installed in the zoo and animal enclosures,” Sudha Ramen, deputy director of Anna Arignar zoo, said.
{{/usCountry}}“For the lockdown, we have added an extra special feature in which we are focusing one animal at a time to show some particular activity of the animal. Say for example an elephant enjoying a shower,” Ramen said.
Even though the pan-India lockdown had started on March 25, almost every zoo and museum had closed down much before that.
The Indian Museum, the oldest and largest multi-purpose museum in India, is going to launch a virtual walkthrough very soon, said its director-in-charge Arijit Dutta Choudhury.
Among its exhibits is a 4000-year-old mummy.
“For now, people can see some of the most important collections, some of which are a few thousand years old, including statutes and coins. We have also started a program titled cultures of the world. We will soon start a virtual walk-through of the museum,” he said.
And it’s not just the galleries and enclosures. Science museums and centres are also holding live shows and competitions too.
“The lockdown came as a new challenge for the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) which has a network of 25 science museums and centres spread across the country. We decided not only to make people aware of coronavirus but also started organising various online programs and activities to connect with the visitors,” SN Singh, NCSM’s spokesperson, said.
Since the lockdown began various science museums and science centres such as the National Science Centre in Delhi, Regional Science Centre in Guwahati, Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum in Bengaluru, Nehru Science Centre in Mumbai and the Science City in Kolkata all have opened up their galleries in the virtual world.
There are panel discussions on Covid-19, DIY activities, celebrations of commemorative days like the World Earth Day and sky observation programs.
“The program organised on April 8 to observe the Super Pink Moon by Birla Industrial and Technological Museum in Kolkata, Nehru Science Centre in Mumbai and National Science Centre in Delhi had more than 80,000 views of the live session through the Facebook Page,” he said.