Blind visitors at Van Vihar National Park are discovering the wildlife treasures through Braille scripted information put up at various points at the park. In a first of it kind endeavour, volunteers of Arushi, an N.G.O. in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, created about two dozen aluminium Braille sheets that give information about the animals of the park.

This is not the first time Arushi is making such an attempt. It has already put up a Braille board at the Sanchi Stupas (a World Heritage Site) and Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya, an indoor museum. They have also put up a braille timetable at the Habibganj Ganj railway station in Bhopal and a braille menu card at Jehan Numa Palace hotel. They have put up no less than 118 such sheets at the Rashtrapati Bhavan also.

Arushi’s other initiatives for visually impaired people include 16,000 hours of recording (audio information) ranging from school curricula to details about competitive examinations, according to Anil Mudgal, an Arushi volunteer. The cassettes were prepared at a studio set up by the efforts of eminent music director, Vishal Bharadwaj and sound engineer, Daman Sood. Interestingly, about half-a-dozen inmates at the Central Jail, Bhopal, have also lent their voices for the cassettes, whose creation was a time-consuming and laborious task.

Established in 1992, Arushi has taken up the cause of disabled people and its primary objective is educational rehabilitation. “We desire to raise awareness and sensitise people about disability. Visually-impaired children ought not to feel different when they enroll in school and we attempt to ensure that such kids (visually impaired children) manage to gain admission in good institutions,” Mudgal said.