Karnataka - Bangalore   

A ticket for them to walk in free

— Photo: K. Murali Kumar

Eye on nature:Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh interacting with children with impaired hearing at a camp in Bangalore on Saturday.

BANGALORE: Children with disabilities will not be charged entry fee when they visit national parks, sanctuaries, zoos or museums.

This was announced by Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh here on Saturday.

He took an on-the-spot decision to waive the entry fee when a boy with impaired hearing drew his attention to the high fee charged at national parks and sanctuaries. This was during an exhibition on biodiversity for children with disabilities organised by the National Museum of Natural History here.

“How can we visit national parks and sanctuaries when their entry fee is so high,” a hearing impaired boy asked the Minister, when he was having an informal chat with a group of children with disabilities after inaugurating the exhibition.

In response, the Minister said, “We will make entry to all such places free for children with disabilities.”

The frank views expressed by these children in the age group of 8 to 12 from different States also resulted in Mr. Ramesh announcing some more decisions. He asked sanctuaries, national parks and forest museums to hire local sign-language interpreters on a part-time basis to help such children during their visits. The Minister suggested that the interpreters should be available on a particular day in a week for the benefit of hearing impaired children.

As part of the four-day nature camp, 25 hearing impaired children from Bangalore, Mysore, Chennai, Kasaragod, Secunderabad and Pondicherry will get a firsthand experience of nature and wild animals at Bannerghatta National Park.

Ajish Abraham, Head of the Department of Electronics, All-India Institute of Speech and Hearing, Mysore, told The Hindu that the institute had developed a special programme to help the children understand nature during the camp. Four interpreters as well as volunteers will be assisting the children.

Manu, a member of Mysore Amateur Naturals, an NGO, which is also assisting the children, said the nature camp would comprise a series of programmes including field visits, interaction with experts, trailing animals and games to understand the principles of nature. He said it was a challenging job to make hearing impaired children understand nature, especially the sounds made by wild animals and birds.

“But these children really have special abilities and their other senses are so strong that they are able to make up for their hearing impairment,” he said.

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