Alipore Zoo: Braille boards set up to help visually-challenged visitors

Kolkata: The Alipore Zoological Garden has become the first zoo in the country to install boards carrying names and descriptions of animals in Braille to help the visually-challenged visitors. 20 such Braille Boards have been set in front of 20 enclosures. This was officially inaugurated by state Forest minister Birbaha Hansda in presence of some visually-impaired visitors on Sunday.

“Inclusivity in places of public interest is a major challenge. I am happy that the Alipore Zoo authorities have made the zoo visit a pleasant experience for the visually-challenged,” said Hansda. The enclosures in front of which the Braille boards have been put in place are that of the tiger, giraffe, chimpanzee to name a few.

The zoo is already equipped with wheelchairs, specially designed ramps and toilet facilities for disabled visitors.

The Braille badges have been donated by the International Eye Foundation that works for the visually impaired.

The minister requested the organisation to have such braille facilities in all the 100 enclosures in the zoo and the latter has agreed to do

the needful.

Gour Halder, a resident of Krishnanagar in Nadia district who is visually impaired is elated with such installation. “We would often ask other persons while standing in front of the enclosure of a particular animal what it is but now, we no longer need to do so as we will be able to know about the animal on our own,” he added.

“A good number of visually impaired visitors come to the zoo but they used to face difficulty in identifying a particular animal while they stood in front of the enclosure. Sometimes, they waited for the animal to make a sound to trace its identity.

However, they were deprived of having some details about the special features of that animal. Now this gap will be bridged with the Braille boards being installed,” said Subhankar Sengupta, Director of Alipore Zoo.