National Museum of Natural History, New Delhi
 |
|
 |
|
| Established | 1972 |
|---|---|
| Dissolved | 26 April 2016 (destroyed by fire) |
| Location | Barakhamba Road, Tansen Marg, New Delhi, India |
| Coordinates | 28°37′36″N 77°13′54″E / 28.626800°N 77.231560°ECoordinates: 28°37′36″N 77°13′54″E / 28.626800°N 77.231560°E |
| Type | Natural history |
| Owner | Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change |
| Public transit access | Mandi House, Delhi Metro |
| Website | nmnh |
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 of the government of India. The museum was situated on Barakhamba Road 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.
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) at the museum.
The NMNH was created in 1972 as part of the celebration of the 25th year of India's independence. 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 (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 is close by, [and] so are the National Crafts Museum, Purana Qila and National Science Centre." Regional Museums of Natural History are located in Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Gangtok, Mysuru, and Sawai Madhopur.
...
Wikipedia