The National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) was a museum focusing on nature, located in New Delhi, India. Established in 1972 and opened in 1978, the museum functioned under the
Ministry of Environment and Forests
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) is an Indian government ministry. This ministry is headed by Secretary Rank senior most IAS officer. The ministry portfolio is currently held by Bhupender Yadav, Union Minister ...
of the
government of India
The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...
.
The museum was situated on
Barakhamba Road
Barakhamba, also known as Barakhamba Monument, is a 14th-century tomb building from the Tughlaq period that is located in New Delhi, India. Barakhamba means '12 Pillars' in Urdu and Hindi languages. The name has also been used for an upscale mo ...
at Tansen Marg in central New Delhi,
[ across from the Embassy of Nepal, near the Connaught Place metro station.][ On 26 April 2016, the museum building and its entire collection were destroyed by a fire.]
Mission
The NMNH's mission was to promote environmental education, both at NMNH in the capital and at Regional Museums of Natural History in other parts of the country; to provide resources such as school loan kits for schools to use in environmental education; to co-ordinate natural history projects with other agencies and organisations, both nationally and internationally; and to conduct natural history research. The NMNH's director, B Venugopal, also emphasised " intangible natural heritage" (a concept invented by UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
) at the museum.[
]
History
The NMNH was created in 1972 as part of the celebration of the 25th year of India's independence
The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947.
The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged from Bengal. ...
. Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India, said that India needed such a museum "to promote environmental awareness".[ After several years of development of its building and exhibits, the NMNH opened in 1978, on ]World Environment Day
World Environment Day (WED) is celebrated annually on 5 June and encourages awareness and action for the protection of the environment. It is supported by many non-governmental organizations, businesses, government entities, and represents the ...
(5 June).[
Following a negative government report in 2012 regarding the building's poor state of maintenance,] in July 2015, plans were made to relocate the museum to a ₹ 2.50 billion ($39.4M, €36.4M, or £25.3M as of July 2015) green-certified building at Bhairon Marg, where "The zoological park
A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes.
The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zool ...
is close by, ndso are the National Crafts Museum, Purana Qila
Purana Qila () is one of the oldest forts in Delhi, India. Built by the second Mughal Emperor Humayun and Surid Sultan Sher Shah Suri, it is thought by many to be located on the site of the ancient city of Indraprastha. The fort formed the in ...
and National Science Centre."[ Regional Museums of Natural History are located in Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Gangtok, Mysuru, and Sawai Madhopur.]
Destruction
In the early morning of 26 April 2016, a fire broke out in the museum and destroyed the entire collection. The fire, which began around 01:30 on the sixth floor of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry
The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) is a non-governmental trade association and advocacy group based in India.
History
Established in 1927, on the advice of Mahatma Gandhi by Indian businessman G.D. Birla and ...
(FICCI) building where the museum had been housed, eventually reached the second floor and destroyed all of the museum's exhibits before fire services were able to bring the flames under control. Around 200 firefighters and 35 fire engines were called; they took more than three and a half hours to extinguish the fire. Six people who became trapped in the building were later sent to a hospital suffering from smoke inhalation.
The cause of the fire is still unknown, although the fire's spread was fuelled by museum specimens and the woodwork holding them. Reports indicate that the devastating effect of the blaze was due to the building's sprinkler system being out of order.
Exhibits
Exhibits at the NMNH were focused on India's plants, animals and mineral wealth, and were divided into four main exhibit galleries: "Cell: The Basic Unit of Life", "Conservation", "Introduction to Natural History", and "Nature's Network: Ecology". The museum had an extensive collection of films on wildlife, ecology, conservation and the environment in general, as well as rare biological specimens, including herpetological specimens, dinosaur fossils and mounted animals. There were also galleries on the origin and evolution of life, conservation of nature, the food chain and exhibits of flora and fauna. A 160 million-year-old fossil of a sauropod and stuffed animals by renowned Mysuru
Mysore (), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude of ...
-based taxidermist
Taxidermy is the art of preserving an animal's body via mounting (over an armature) or stuffing, for the purpose of display or study. Animals are often, but not always, portrayed in a lifelike state. The word ''taxidermy'' describes the proc ...
s Van Ingen & Van Ingen were part of the museum collection.
The museum also featured a Discovery Room and Activity Room, specifically designed for children, where designated specimens could be handled by visitors. Guided tours, and specially designed resources for disabled visitors, were also available. Specific exhibits included a sauropod fossil, "a collection of bird eggs including those of the ostrich
Ostriches are large flightless birds of the genus ''Struthio'' in the order Struthioniformes, part of the infra-class Palaeognathae, a diverse group of flightless birds also known as ratites that includes the emus, rheas, and kiwis. There ...
and the long-billed vulture", and "stuffed animals including various big cats
The term "big cat" is typically used to refer to any of the five living members of the genus ''Panthera'', namely the tiger, lion, jaguar, leopard, and snow leopard.
Despite enormous differences in size, various cat species are quite similar ...
".
Plans for future exhibitions, as of 2015, had included "climate change, global warming, combating desertification, tsunami, nddepletion of he ozone layer" as well as "more digital displays ... d an IMAX theatre".[ The museum was also acquiring dinosaur egg fossils from Narmada Valley, Gujarat.]
See also
* List of destroyed heritage
* Rajiv Gandhi Regional Museum of Natural History, Sawai Madhopur
* Regional Museum of Natural History, Bhubaneswar
The Regional Museum of Natural History, Bhubaneswar is a museum in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India with exhibits on plants, animals and geology of the eastern region of India. The Regional Museum of Natural History at Bhubaneswar, was inaugurated in ...
* Regional Museum of Natural History, Mysore
* Regional Museum of Natural History, Bhopal
The Regional Museum of Natural History, Bhopal is a branch of the National Museum of Natural History, New Delhi, located in the Environment Complex on Shahpura Lake in Bhopal. The museum was inaugurated on 29 September 1997, by the then Ministe ...
* National Museum of Brazil fire
The National Museum of Brazil was heavily damaged by a large fire which began about 19:30 local time (23:30 UTC) on 2 September 2018. Although some items were saved, it is believed that 92.5% of its archive of 20 million items were destroyed in ...
References
External links
National Museum of Natural History official website
{{Authority control
1972 establishments in Delhi
2016 disestablishments in India
2016 disasters in India
2016 fires in Asia
Buildings and structures in New Delhi
Burned buildings and structures
Fires in India
Museums established in 1972
Museums disestablished in 2016
Museums in Delhi
Defunct museums
Natural history museums in India
April 2016 events in India
Disasters in Delhi
Demolished buildings and structures in India
Museum fires