A group of student-sculptors and staff of Government Fine Arts College, Kumbakonam, are busy giving final touches to life-sized fibre structures of extinct animals, including mammoths, bison, wild cat and nilgai, that roamed Chennai city and its outskirts, about one lakh years ago.

They are working towards setting up a thematic prehistoric park on a protected site in Poondi, next month.

“Making such life-size objects is a challenge. As students, it’s great learning for us,” said J. Gunasekar, a first-year student in the department of sculpture.

Except a four-legged dinosaur, which will be 12 feet tall, the rest of the models of extinct animals will be around six feet in height.

An interesting feature of the park will be a realistic scene of a group of five prehistoric men trying to hunt down a bison with flakes and other stone tools, which can be seen even now.

“Like extinct animals, the hunting sequence is also based on findings and evidence of prehistoric man found in the region by archaeologists over the years. Most of the raw materials, like fibre, have been sourced from Coimbatore and Puducherry,” said B.R. Ravi, senior lecturer at the college’s department of paintings. Funded by the Department of Arts and Culture, the park will be set up at a cost of Rs. 15 lakh. Initially, the models will be made of clay and later with fibre to give definite shape and durability.

“On an average, it takes at least five days to complete a clay model, and up to a fortnight to do fibre models. The project will be completed next month,” said N. Manohar, principal of the college.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by P. Madhavan / Chennai – November 09th, 2014