Visitors to the Abdul Nazir Sab State Institute of Rural Development (ANSSIRD) in Mysuru are now being greeted by a quintessentially rural sight — a pair of bullocks and a cart parked underneath a tree.
And as you marvel at the sight and proceed further, your eyes will fall upon a couple of buffaloes and bullocks grazing on the lawns adjacent to the hostel block of the institute.
Only, the cattle found at ANSSIRD are anything but real. But the models of bullocks and buffaloes installed on the premises are so exquisitely sculpted, they can pass off for real ones.
“A number of elected representatives and senior officials, on visiting the institute, have asked us to drive out the ‘cattle’, saying they would otherwise eat up and destroy the finely manicured lawns,” said Dinesh, a receptionist at the institute.
Sculpted out of a mixture of cement and other materials, the two buffaloes and six bullocks were part of the exhibits at the cow shed put up at the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department stall at the Dasara exhibition grounds in Mysuru last year.
Dasara sculptures
They were sculpted by Ganesh from Gadag. After the exhibition concluded in January, ANSSIRD officials urged the Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj. H.K. Patil, to shift the models from the exhibition premises to the institute.
“The models will help create a rural setting. A lot of elected representatives and officials come to the institute for training, and the models will enhance the training ambience and help them absorb the training in a better way,” said the institutes’s deputy director, G.S. Ganesh Prasad.
Estimated to cost ₹25 lakh to ₹30 lakh, the models can withstand the vagaries of weather, Dr. Prasad said. “Except for a coat of paint once in a year or two, the exhibits do not require much maintenance,” he said. They are being taken care of by the institute’s gardener.
Apart from exhibiting cattle, ANSSIRD also has plans to establish a rural tech park on its premises to showcase various technologies such as low-cost housing and RO (Reverse Osmosis) plant for drinking water for the benefit of trainees, Dr. Prasad said.
