Kozhikode Collector to flag off centenary run at its centre

The year-long centenary celebrations of the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) at its Western Ghat Regional Centre will kick off with a ‘Centenary Run’ starting from its campus at Jaffar Khan Colony in Kozhikode on Wednesday.

School and college students, staff members of the regional centre and people will participate in the run and the curtain-raiser event followed by it in the afternoon.

A variety of programmes including national seminars on Western Ghat conservation, workshops, public awareness programmes and competitions for school and college students will be among the programmes to be organised as part of the centenary celebrations, said P.M. Sureshan, senior scientist and officer-in-charge of the centre.

The natural history museum at the centre has been spruced-up to welcome the visitors as part of the celebrations. The museum that features a wide variety of representative fauna of Western Ghats, will be a key attraction for the visitors during the celebrations, said Dr. Sureshan. The museum has a good collection of seashells, insects, fossils, seashore animals and fishes to attract the viewers.

A section titled ‘A Journey through the Western Ghats,’ takes the viewers through the photographs and embalmed samples of living thing including birds, animals and butterflies endemic to the Western Ghats. Besides eye-catching pictorials and models of life from the Ghats, the section also features pictures of a large variety of amphibians, mammals, fishes, retails, molluscs and dragonflies in the section. Entry to the museum will be free from 10 a.m.

‘Taking Science to People,’ is the theme of the centenary celebrations. “That will precisely be what we attempt to do through various programmes as part of the celebrations,” said Dr. Sureshan, who maintained that the centenary celebration would also be an occasion to introduce the institute to the public as well as to the scientific community outside. District Collector N. Prasanth will flag off the centenary run at the centre at 10 a.m. on Wednesday. Mayor A.K. Premajam will inaugurate the centenary celebrations at the centre at 2 p.m.. Dr. P.S. Easa, former director of the Kerala Forest Research Institute will deliver the keynote address on the occasion.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kozhikode / by Jabir Musthari / Kozhikode – July 01st, 2015