The city residents would soon get an opportunity to gain an insight into the rich diversity of flora and fauna of the Shivalik Range. For, a Nature Interpretation Centre to display the wide variety of biodiversity in Shivalik hills would be set up in Chandigarh.
After developing a Nature Interpretation Centre at regulator end of Sukhna lake, the UT Administration has now got down to brass tacks to construct another Nature Interpretation Centre in the City Beautiful.
The UT Forest and Wildlife Department would develop the new Centre. The Centre aimed at promoting eco-tourism and spreading awareness about rich floral and faunal heritage of the Shivalik Hills would come up in the Botanical Garden, which is the biggest nature park spreading over an area of 176 acres in the city.
Shivalik, or the lower Himalayas, is a beautiful range of mountains with a wide variety of biodiversity. The NTC at the Botanical Garden will display three dimensional panoramic panels and other interesting features related to flora and fauna of Shivalik hills. It would display the live-size diorama of species of mammals including leopards, elephants, deer, jungle cat among others.
The work for the development of Nature Interpretation Centre (NTC) at Botanical Garden will be executed by Centre for Environment Education (CEE) at Ahmedabad which is Centre of Excellence of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests. The CEE has developed the recently opened NTC at the regulator end of Sukhna lake. The NTC at Sukhna lake exhibits the biodiversity of Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary only.
The UT Forest Department and Wildlife Department has decided to take up the new NTC project in the next financial year 2014-15. The NTC project at Botanical Garden is estimated to cost around `2 crore. The building where the Center would be developed has already been constructed at the Botanical Garden.
Kuldeep Sharma, UT deputy Conservator of Forests while talking to The Pioneer said, “The UT Forest and Wildlife Department has planned to develop a Nature Interpretation Centre at Botanical Garden here. The NTC at Botanical Garden aims at showcasing the flora and fauna indigenous to Shivalik Range and promoting nature preservation and to stop depletion of forests wealth.”
He said, “The Centre will provide an opportunity to the tourists and visitors to explore the interesting aspects of environment and ecology of Shivalik range. To sensitise the people about the necessity to conserve nature, interactive voice modules of birds, touch screen kiosks, murals, indoor and outdoor signages would be developed at the new NTC.”
“Starting from forests and wildlife, the new NTC will unfold facts on biodiversity, floral richness of Shivalik Hills. life size diorama of animal species and birds found in Shivalik Range would also be exhibited at the Centre,” he added.
“The NTC to be developed at Botanical Garden would be huge and twice the size of the recently opened Nature Interpretation Centre at the regulator end of Sukhna lake. The new Centre is estimated to cost around `2 crore,” said the UT Deputy Conservator of Forests.
The Botanical Garden situated near Sarangpur village here spreads over an area of 176 acres consisting of difference sections and more than 75 species of medicinal trees and 55 species of medicinal shrubs, herbs and climbers have been planted in the garden to conserve and spread awareness about floral heritage.
Notably, the NTC opened at Sukhna lake, displays different themes like bio-diversity of Sukhna with lake habitat, Avifauna of Sukhna lake, lake Ecology, Sukhna lake in different seasons, introduction to Sukhna lake, importance of wetlands and impact of climate change, flora and fauna of Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary and conservation measures, Tourist Information, Aquatic eco-systems of the world, Animal Adaptations and information about Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary.
Also, the information on the flora and fauna of Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary as well as of Sukhna lake have been displayed in the form of 15 wayside signages all along the 3 kilometer long lake embankment so that visitors can simply walk by and get to know about the bio-diversity of
the area.
The NTC at Sukhna lake is developed at the cost of around `70 lakh.