National Museum of Natural History (New Delhi)

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Exterior view of the National Museum of Natural History, 2011
Atrium of the National Museum of Natural History, 2011

The National Museum of Natural History ( NMNH ) was the national natural history museum in New Delhi , India . It was founded in 1972 and opened in 1978. On April 26, 2016, a fire destroyed the museum and its entire collection.

Location and management

The museum was on Barakhamba Road at Tansen Marg in downtown New Delhi, across from the Nepalese Embassy near Connaught Place . It was run by the Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests.

history

The museum was founded in 1972 as part of India's 25th anniversary celebrations. The then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi said that India needed such a museum to promote environmental awareness. After several years of building the building and its collection, it opened on World Environment Day , June 5th, 1978.

According to a state report from 2012 on the poor state of preservation of the building, the plan was to move the museum to a new environmentally-friendly building near the zoo, the National Crafts Museum, the Purana Qila fortress and the National Science Center at Bhairon Marg . There are regional natural history museums in Bhopal , Bhubaneswar , Gangtok , Mysuru and Sawai Madhopur .

Exhibits

A stuffed peacock from India

The exhibits on India's plants, animals and minerals were spread over four galleries:

  • Cell, the basic unit of life
  • natural reserve
  • Introduction to natural history
  • Network of nature: ecology

As museum had a large collection of movies and rare biological objects, such as amphibians (salamanders) and reptiles (reptiles), dinosaurs - fossils and stuffed animals and framed.

In an exploration and activity room for children, visitors could pick up the exhibits provided for this purpose. Guided tours and special facilities for disabled visitors were available. In addition to the sauropod, a collection of bird eggs such as those of the ostrich and Indian vulture as well as stuffed big cats were remarkable . The museum also wanted to source fossil dinosaur eggs from the Narmada Valley in Gujarat .

fire

In the early morning hours of April 26, 2016, a fire broke out in the museum building and destroyed the entire collection, including a 160 million year old fossil sauropod and stuffed animals from the well-known taxidermists Van Ingen & Van Ingen from Mysuru . The fire broke out around 1:30 am on the sixth floor of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) building, on the second floor of which the museum was located. It spread to the other floors before 200 firefighters with 35 fire engines were able to bring the fire under control within 3½ hours. Six firefighters were taken to hospital with smoke inhalation.

The cause of the fire is unknown, but its spread was greatly accelerated by the stuffed animals and their wooden supports. Initial reports indicate that the sprinkler system was not working.

Web links

Commons : National Museum of Natural History, New Delhi  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Vidhi Doshi: Fire guts Delhi's natural history museum . April 26, 2016. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
  2. ↑ a b c d New, futuristic natural history museum to come up in Delhi . July 19, 2015. Retrieved September 15, 2015.
  3. ↑ a b National Museum of Natural History . Retrieved September 15, 2015.
  4. ↑ a b About us . NMNH official site. Retrieved September 15, 2015.
  5. ^ A b Makeover for natural history museum . In: The Times of India , August 4, 2015. Retrieved September 15, 2015. 
  6. ↑ S. Priyadershini: legacy Fragile . October 6, 2012. Retrieved September 15, 2015.
  7. ^ Delhi Museum fire: Safety systems failed, priceless exhibits gutted . In: India Today , April 26, 2016. Retrieved April 27, 2016. 
  8. ^ Museum after blue whale bones . August 4, 2015. Retrieved September 15, 2015.
  9. ↑ Massive fire destroys Delhi's National Museum of Natural History . April 26, 2016. Retrieved April 27, 2016.
  10. ^ A b Fire destroys Delhi's National Museum of Natural History . April 26, 2016. Retrieved April 27, 2016.
  11. ^ Sonal Mehrotra: Delhi's National Museum of Natural History Destroyed In Massive Fire . In: NDTV.com . April 26, 2016.

Coordinates: 28 ° 37 ′ 36.5 ″  N , 77 ° 13 ′ 53.6 ″  E