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The entire collection at Delhi\u2019s natural history museum has been destroyed in a fire, officials have confirmed.\n<\/iframe><br \/>\nThe blaze, which began sometime after 1.30am on Tuesday, burned through the upper part of the museum, where the museum\u2019s collection was housed.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p>Firefighters were able to bring the flames under control before it reached the museum offices on the ground floor, mezzanine and first floor.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-524\" src=\"wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/4096-300x180.jpg\" alt=\"4096\" width=\"300\" height=\"180\" srcset=\"wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/4096-300x180.jpg 300w, wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/4096-768x461.jpg 768w, wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/4096-1024x614.jpg 1024w, wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/4096.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-525\" src=\"wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/1461642839-4003-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"1461642839-4003\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/1461642839-4003-300x225.jpg 300w, wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/1461642839-4003-326x245.jpg 326w, wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/1461642839-4003-80x60.jpg 80w, wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/1461642839-4003.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-526\" src=\"wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/ficci_146162595315_647x404_042616044338-300x187.jpg\" alt=\"ficci_146162595315_647x404_042616044338\" width=\"300\" height=\"187\" srcset=\"wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/ficci_146162595315_647x404_042616044338-300x187.jpg 300w, wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/ficci_146162595315_647x404_042616044338.jpg 647w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Plans to move the museum\u2019s collection to a state-of-the-art facility were under way after a scathing report in 2012 by the government\u2019s public accounts committee raised concerns about the maintenance of the museum.<\/p>\n<p>A parliamentary panel had criticised the environment ministry for the \u201cpathetic functioning\u201d of the museum.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson from Delhi\u2019s fire service told the Guardian that the call was taken at about 2am, adding: \u201cThe museum was closed at the time so there were no casualties.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are still not sure how the fire started but eyewitnesses say it started on the top of the building. The water system in the building was not working, and we had to arrange for water to be brought from a nearby metro station \u2013 that was the reason there was so much damage. If the water was working we could have saved a lot more of the building.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Two firefighters were injured, but both have been released from hospital.<\/p>\n<p>One of the highlights of the collection was an irreplaceable bone from a sauropod dinosaur, which was an estimated 160 million years old. It may have belonged to one of the largest animals to have walked the earth.<\/p>\n<p>Rahul Khot, the curator of the Bombay Natural History Society\u2019s collection, said: \u201cThis is an irreversible loss. Museums are not made up overnight; it takes effort over decades to collect, research and curate a museum.<\/p>\n<p>Khot said it could take decades before a new collection for the museum was amassed again. \u201cThese are invaluable items. All museums have things which are very old, and very hard to put a monetary value on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<div id=\"dfp-ad--inline1\" class=\"js-ad-slot ad-slot ad-slot--dfp ad-slot--inline ad-slot--inline1\" data-link-name=\"ad slot inline1\" data-test-id=\"ad-slot-inline1\" data-name=\"inline1\" data-mobile=\"1,1|300,250\" data-mobile-landscape=\"1,1|300,250\" data-tablet=\"1,1|300,250\" data-node-uid=\"16\">\n<p>\u201cThis is a big loss for society and the nation. Many people use museums for education. It can\u2019t be remade overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The minister of environment, who visited the remains of the museum on Tuesday morning, said: \u201cI have asked for an energy and fire audit of all establishments of the ministry across the country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPlans will be made for how the museum is to be restored. First we have to assess the loss, then we can decide how to restore the museum.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to a spokesperson for the environment ministry, the building in which the collection was housed was managed by Ficci, a lobby group for Indian businesses.<\/p>\n<p>Ficci and authorities at the natural history museum could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n<p>The museum, which was established in 1972, had a collection of preserved butterflies and reptiles, taxidermy, and a life-sized model of a dinosaur.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The entire collection at Delhi\u2019s natural history museum has been destroyed in a fire, officials have confirmed. The blaze, which began sometime after 1.30am on Tuesday, burned through the upper part of the museum, where the museum\u2019s collection was housed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":526,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archaeology.sa\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archaeology.sa\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archaeology.sa\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archaeology.sa\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archaeology.sa\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=522"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.archaeology.sa\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":528,"href":"https:\/\/www.archaeology.sa\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522\/revisions\/528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archaeology.sa\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archaeology.sa\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archaeology.sa\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archaeology.sa\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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