Calcutta University Zoology dept launches web portal to address research queries
The Zoology department of Calcutta University has come up with a web portal to address research related queries of students, teachers or corporate industries.
The portal www.zoologyhub.org is a Zoology web portal launched recently to connect people. Under-Graduate and Post-Graduate students, scholars, teachers, researchers, professionals in the field and in the lab in academia or corporate or industry can use the portal for their natural history related or research related queries.
It started with the restoration and upgradation of the Centenary Heritage Zoological Museum that houses thousands of common, rare, endangered, threatened and even extinct animals from Bengal, from the rest of India and from all over the world. It showcases fauna from almost all zoo-geographical realms of this planet.
It is expected to function as a common platform for all Zoology related queries and networking in research, education and outreach.
The portal is funded by a grant of Tata Education trust.
The century old Zoology department has a rich heritage and history. Scholars like JBS Haldane and Patrick Geddes. Geddes wrote a biography of Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose.
These two scholars along with many more had contributed to set up a priceless museum. Earlier, setting up of museums in science departments for better understanding of the subject, particularly its history, was encouraged by the university authorities.
A portion of the museum including the exhibits of Zoology department housed in Science campus of CU on Ballygunge Circular Road caught fire in 2016. Many of the priceless specimens got damaged and needed immediate restoration. Many of the specimens were obtained during exchange programmes and some of them were donated by the Maharajas. An elephant foetus was donated by the Maharaja of Mysore. But despite repeated requests by the teachers of the department, CU authorities are yet to take steps to reopen it and restore the specimens.