Wandering Destination: Regional museum of Natural history, Bhubaneshwar

Wandering Destination: Regional museum of Natural history, Bhubaneshwar

The Regional Museum of Natural History, Bhubaneshwar with exhibits mostly on plants, animals and geology of the eastern region of India (especially Odisha) and some guest exhibits related to other parts of the world.  

An aesthetically designed building and landscape sets the tone for an informal and joyful learning experience about our natural heritage and the importance of its conservation. 

Entrance to the Gallery of RMNH: The goal of the museum is to impart non-formal environmental education to the public in general and the student community in particular in order to inculcate the awareness about the importance of flora, fauna and subsequent conservation of our natural resources

 The galleries emphasize the conservation of nature and natural resources while depicting ecological interrelationship among plants and animals. It offers an exciting opportunity for hands on and minds on activity to interact with the exhibits under recreated environment to attain the knowledge about the harmony of plants and animals and their interrelationships in nature.

The museum attempts to showcase the vibrant biodiversity of Orissa, the NorthEast and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands depicting their richness under one roof thereby making people aware of the natural heritage of the state and beyond. Visually challenged students can feel the exhibits of animals on the premises. The museum provides an extracurricular activity for schools and promotes environmental awareness. 

A skeleton of Baleen Whale has been installed in the museum, which is supposed to be largest for any museum in India.

Gallery also has some exclusive paintings of landscapes, some scaled models among other exhibits. In picture: Beach of Andaman and Nicobar

Butterfly Exhibits:

Gallery hosts two exhibits on the common butterflies found in Odisha. 

Gallery has one exhibit on the moths and butterflies found in Madagascar. 

History of Regional Museums Establishment [1]

Realising that, as a National Institution, the National Museum of Natural History has an obligation to the entire country in respect of creating environment awareness and promoting conservation education, it was decided during the VII Plan to have regional offices in the form of Regional Museum of Natural History (RMNH) in different parts of the country in a phased manner so as to extend the activities of NMNH at regional and state levels. It was undertaken by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.

Accordingly, the first such Regional office was initiated in the 'Southern Region' in 1995 at Mysore (Karnataka State). The second one was developed for the ' Central Region' in Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) in 1997.The third Regional Museum in the 'Eastern Region' of the country was established in Bhubaneswar (Orissa) and operationalised in 2004. The fourth Regional office was established in “Western Region” in Sawai Madhopur in 2008 and it is expected to be operational shortly. A fifth Regional office in “North-Eastern Region” is expected to be established soon in Gangtok (Sikkim).

Location and conveyance:

Planetarium shares the compound fence with Regional Museum of Natural history, and is located on Sachivalaya marg in Acharya Vihar square (Chowk). From AG square share auto takes five rupees only while from CRP square it takes ten rupees.

References:

[1] http://nmnh.nic.in/Bhubaneswar.htm
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_Museum_of_Natural_History,_Bhubaneswar