PROGRAMS ON TELEVISION

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PROGRAMS ON RADIO

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Gallery at Regional Science Centre, Lucknow

The first Radio Scientoon of the world Created by All India Radio, Lucknow

LUCKNOW, July 22: The art of scientoons, the original creation of a scientist from the Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI) here, that have been recognised all over the world as an effective visual medium for communicating science, will go audio for the first time tomorrow.

In a first attempt to make the scientoons and its message reach a larger audience, the All India Radio, Lucknow has produced a three-minute programme based on the scientoon on the current problem of water crisis.

The three-minute programme would be broadcasted from all primary channels of the 210 stations of AIR all over the country at 2200 hrs tomorrow.

Incidentally, scientoons is the branch of science based on cartoons providing information about the latest researches, subjects, concepts and data through wit and humour in a simple, understandable and interesting way, for pioneering which Dr Pradeep Srivastava from CDRI received the award from Junior Chamber International, USA in 1990.

Expressing satisfaction over the production of the programme AIR, Lucknow director Karuna Srivastava told UNI that, “though we regularly produce programme based on different aspects of science, but this was a unique concept and we tied up with the CDRI to produce a programme based on a scientoon, the branch of science already acclaimed throughout the world.”

Programme producer Meenu Khare, while commenting on the highlight of the programme, said Dr Pradeep Srivastava who had made an interesting scientoon showing a crow dying after being unable to raise the level of water in a pot despite putting pebbles and stones the whole day.

She said, “though this is a very common story of a crow told to children, but the dying of a crow shown in the scientoon carried a message for the whole mankind to seriously gear up to check the water crisis.”

Ms Khare said since the topic was current she decided to create the visuals through sounds and is satisfied with her production. “rest, our expert team will monitor the feedback and on the basis of it we would further think of bringing some innovations,” she added. Meanwhile, Dr Srivastava told UNI that he was moved by the latest concern of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on the world environment day on June 5 last when it raised the slogan “Water: two billion people are dying for it.”

He said, ” the idea struck my mind and I decided to send a message through a simple story of a crow. That is how the whole concept came into being.”

Dr Srivastava said later he collected more data on the subject and was surprised to find that in Lucknow alone the ground water-level had receded by 25 ft between 1989 and 2001.
He said, “now when two billion people are dying for water, it has been estimated that by 2050 seven billion people in 60 countries would face the crisis of drinking water, leave aside other necessities of water.”

He said in the programme, he has also highlighted the methods of conservation of water that includes a perfect balance of drip irrigation and sprinkle irrigation in the rural areas and the proper implementation of rain water harvesting methods in the urban areas.

He says, “after all, water is majorly consumed in the urban areas and these are the places where no conservation is made, as a result most of the water drains out. Therefore it is necessary to conserve and re-charge the water in cities to check the fast receding water-table.”

Dr Srivastava said he later tied up with the air for producing the audio version of the scientoon so as to reach the masses in the remote places.

On the radio scientoon slated to be broadcast tomorrow, Dr Srivastava said if the feedback was satisfactory, more such innovations could be worked out. (UNI)