The Birla Industrial & Technological Meseum (BITM) has recently inaugurated a special gallery in Kolkata for the visually-impaired to make them aware about the heavenly bodies.

“A world of darkness” — as the name suggests, the gallery provides a detailed description of the cosmos, including the solar system, the Milky Way, the pole stars, the Andromeda, Cassiopeia and Ursa Major and also the 12 zodiac signs.

Each of these heavenly bodies is explained with the help of electronic instruments. Once a button is pressed against a figure, a recorded voice names the figure the visitors place their hands on.

“The most interesting thing is that the temperature decreases as one moves away from the sun. I can touch it and feel the temperature as it changes from hot to cold,” says Manoj Kumar Sarkar, a student of Narendrapur Blind Boys Academy.

The ‘continental drift ‘ shows how continents were formed with time, and the formation of different types of rocks and the water cycle. The entire process is explained through the sounds of changing stages of water.

The maps of Bengal, India and the neighbouring countries are depicted in a way so that a visitor, by touching various areas, can feel the elevated mountains and the difference in topography such as soil texture.

While every item at display is supported with Braille writings to enable the visually-challenged visitors understand the gallery, the gallery also has four visually-challenged demonstrators to guide the visitors.

BITM director Ebdadul Islam is pleased at the response from different schools and organisations. “Louis Braille Memorial School, Light House For the Blind and Calcutta Blind School students have already visited the gallery.

The museum authorities have been approached by schools from Midnapore, Nabadwip, Hooghly, Jalpaiguri and Haldia,” Islam said.

“I have asked the UNESCO and UNICEF to sponsor the conveyance for schools in remote areas,” Islam added.

Besides this gallery, two more galleries — the Popular Science Gallery and the Bio-diversity Dynamic Globe gallery — have also been inaugurated.

The science gallery deals with day-to-day scientific actions and reactions, different scientific principles, which are very popular among young visitors. Dynamic Globe is a unique spherical projection that brings alive the dynamic earth manifesting its various features —- surface and underwater topography, oceanic and atmosphere currents and flora and fauna.