Visva-Bharati Student Helps Visually Impaired To Identify Trees Through Braille

Bolpur: A Visva-Bharati student has come up with a way to help the visually impaired get acquainted with plants.

Soumitra Haldar, a research student in the Department of Botany at Visva-Bharati, has presented the names, shapes and fragrances of leaves in Braille. His research paper titled 'Parash Patrali' has already earned a lot of accolades and was discussed at a recent seminar for the specially-abled at Visva-Bharati's Binay Bhavan.

A professor glancing through Soumitra Halder's research paper (ETV Bharat)

Prof. Subrata Mondal, Head of the Department of Botany at Visva-Bharati, said, "While doing his BEd, Soumitra noticed that the visually impaired were having trouble identifying leaves and trees. That's when he conceived the idea and we started working on it. The visually impaired have been shown how to identify leaves and know about their smell through touch. This will benefit them a lot as they will be able to spot the tree's location by identifying its scent. Also, their familiarity with the environment will increase a lot. This research work should be kept in the libraries of various schools and colleges."

Soumitra is a resident of Ilshamari in Nadia district. His father Lakshman Haldar is a farmer by profession and mother Moumita Haldar is a homemaker. After passing higher secondary, Soumitra joined the Botany Department of Visva-Bharati and then completed his post-graduation from there. Later, he pursued research.

Soumitra's work has received accolades (ETV Bharat)

Soumitra said after completing his post-graduation, he enrolled in BEd and while working on a project, noticed the challenges faced by visually impaired students in identifying leaves. These students had to ask others repeatedly, causing problems for everyone. After that, Soumitra found a way to identify trees and leaves for the visually impaired.

He began with a record of about 25 leaves. On one side, leaves of Chalta, Frangipani, Sacred fig, Tinospora cordifolia, Pine, Mango, hibiscus and others were kept. On the other side, name of the leaf, scientific name, smell and other information were described in Braille system. The visually impaired could identify the leaves by touching it.

Visually impaired know about the leaf, smell and other properties (ETV Bharat)

What is Braille system?

Braille is a system for reading books for the visually impaired. Letters or words are represented by six high dots arranged in a row. The visually impaired people can read by touch. This system was invented by French linguist Louis Braille in 1825. The Visva-Bharati Central Library has a collection of several books, including a Braille reading system for the visually impaired.

Soumitra's invention has already created a flutter at the university. A seminar was recently held at Visva-Bharati's Binay Bhavan, where Soumitra's research was discussed. This apart, this research was also discussed in a seminar in Jadavpur University. Ishan Chakraborty, a professor of the English department at Jadavpur University, has named this research 'Parash Patrali'.

Benefits for visually impaired

The visually impaired can identify a leaf, understand its size, texture and smell. Thus, their familiarity with the environment is increasing through touch and smell. While walking, they can guess which tree is nearby.

Rahul Deb Roy, a visually impaired teacher, said, "This research will be very useful. I myself did not know what a pine leaf looks like. I learnt it from here. It is very important for those who are interested in knowing and recognising the environment. If you can recognise a tree when you go out on the road, you can also tell the location. In my opinion, this is a good initiative."

Soumitra said, "We started with 25 leaves but I want to do this work on a larger scale so that the visually impaired can easily recognise trees and get familiar with the environment. Leaf recognition has been done using Braille method. Although the visually impaired lack one sense, the rest of their senses are much more active than ours. So these senses have been used to provide them more information."