Country's first biodiversity museum opens today

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The country's first biodiversity museum, at Vallakadavu here, will be opened to public by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday.
An initiative of the Kerala State Biodiversity Board, the museum includes a 3D theatre and galleries.

The 50-seater theatre would screen movies on plants and animals, said biodiversity board chairman S C Joshi, adding that the main aim was to create awareness among all sections of society about biodiversity conservation.

The museum also features Kerala's first ever Science on Sphere (SOS) system. An SOS system uses multimedia projections to stimulate animated images of earth, land, ocean etc, on a six-ft diameter sphere analogous to a giant globe. It provides real time data on weather and biodiversity conditions across the world accessed directly from NASA.

There are four permanent galleries on various topics - Biodiversity: The web of life, gateway of living world, global action for biodiversity and biodiversity conservation and sustainable utilization. An array of seeds and marine products are also put on display.

The Biodiversity Awards for the year 2017-18 will be prsented by the chief minister during the inaugural to be held at 4pm.

The museum will be open from 10.30am to 7.00pm on all days, except Monday.