Title - Science Express draws 80,000 students

RANCHI: Science Express at Ranchi railway station has witnessed around 80,000 footfalls in the past four days. A large number of students thronged the 16-coach facility on Friday, the last day of the train in the state capital.Of the 225 halts that the train has passed through in its past five-year journey, its stay in Ranchi has surprised all the executives. "I have not seen such a huge crowd at any place in the country," said Dilip V Surkar, the executive director of the Science Express.All the platforms, especially platform Nos 1, 4 and 5, swarmed with students on Friday. It prompted the administration to deploy police to manage the crowd. The train left for Rourkela on Friday evening where it will stay till July 17. Around 3,000 students had visited the train on Tuesday when the exhibition had begun. Wednesday witnessed 20,000-odd visitors and Thursday had 28,000 footfalls. The total number of visitors on Friday was 30,000.Science communicator Ebin Abraham said Ranchi students had similar curiosity like their counterparts in metro cities. "The children here are paying attention to minute details and are asking specific questions," Abraham said. A science communicator works as a coach to the visitors. Surbhi Anand, a student of Class VII from Sacred Heart Girls School, asked Abraham how she could save the environment.A joint initiative of the Union environment and forests ministry and the department of science and technology, the train aims to create awareness on biodiversity of India, climate change and similar issues among various audiences specially students. The exhibition has topics climate change, trans-Himalaya and the Himalaya, The Gangetic plain, Northeast India, the desert and semi-arid zones, the Western Ghats, The Deccan Peninsula, the coasts and islands as its exhibits.

The initiative is a part of the celebration of 2011 to 2020 as "United Nations Biodiversity Decade" by the UN. The same period is also being celebrated as UN Decade for Deserts and the Fight against Desertification.

Surkar said, "The huge footfall showcases nothing but inquisitiveness about environment in students and the public at large. The crowd has come without us doing any publicity."

"The entire train, especially the eight bogies, was always full of students," said Chitra Upadhayay, a science communicator. Over 50% of the visitors have been given certificates for conducting experiments.