Safeguarding history

The National Museum of Natural History went up in flames in the early hours of Tuesday morning. (Photo: Sondeep Shankar)

The recent fire that charred down the six-storey building of the National Museum of Natural History, founded in 1972, has raised an important debate around the present infrastructural condition of all museums in the country.

Conceptualised by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, this 38-year-old museum focused on India’s flora and fauna, conservation and environmental education. The museum was situated in the FICCI auditorium premises. The fire first started at the top floors and later spread throughout the building, destroying decades of careful curation of India’s natural history.

Reliving past memories, Ravi Agarwal, photographer and environmentalist says, “This was a beautiful Bauhaus-style museum with old and painstakingly made taxidermy specimens and it was also where I did the intervention about the extinction of vultures. It is hard to believe that it is gone — the place where I learnt my first lessons of natural history. A 50s style museum without the high-tech gizmos that infest such museums today, it was a labour of love.”

He goes on, “Sitting far away, I feel helpless. For a long time, they had been planning to shift the museum since the prime property was wanted for other uses. It had the last two vultures in Delhi as a diorama. This is truly the end of an era!”

According to art curator Uma Nair, most museums in India are very ill-equipped, ill-managed and lack a sense of history. She affirms that it is high time that they underwent a disaster management preparedness exercise. She says, “It will be interesting to know when they had such an exercise last. If they had the exercise they would have realised that fire systems were not working. They need to look at the structure and interior architectural details of buildings of such high cultural and historical significance and go about integrating the latest fire and life safety requirements, while preserving their historical character. The National Museum of Natural History should have had modern systems like the wireless fire detection system and invisible installation with aspirating smoke detection. With historical objects, the building needs to have a system that reduces oxygen at once on the detection of a fire so that the flames don’t spread farther. The problem with us, at a larger level, is that we have no sense of history. We treat everything like a fossil — we don’t respect our heritage, let alone preserve it. It is shocking to know the details. Preparedness was really lacking.”

There had been concerns about the state of the museum for a while. According to Marszal, a parliamentary report in 2012 criticised the “pathetic functioning” of the museum and recommended moving the exhibits to a more modern facility. “Museums are built with great intentions but are terribly maintained. I was sad to hear of the death of the wonderful dinosaur skeleton,” shares Jaya Jaitly.

She continues, “Museums and heritage sites are the most valuable assets of a country’s cultural history and safeguarding them should be a national priority. We could build wonderful museums everywhere to be run by passionate people but unfortunately we lack the latest technology to keep them running. The Delhi Crafts Museum, for instance, needs considerable modernisation and expansion of its textile section. Technological advancement is a key area we must focus on and this incident has put the light on the importance of these advanced security systems.”

Photographer Sanjay Das echoes similar sentiments and avers, “This is a shocking loss for our nation! The museum was a national treasure. The loss cannot be quantified. It raises the question of whether our heritage can be preserved in this environment of procrastination, indifference and disregard. Most of the youngsters don’t even know what beautiful treasures are kept inside these walls. Currently, apart from focusing on the structural improvements in our museums, we also need to pay attention to spreading awareness about the art and artefacts presently tucked in all our national museums.”

This is a wake-up call for every art patron in the country and we need to channel our energies towards important issues, says Anubhav Nath, curatorial director at Ojas art. He says, “Such historical artefacts and antiquities are an irreplaceable part of our heritage. Museums have an added responsibility of protecting them. Most museums and libraries in India are in a state of neglect. Urgent attention is needed to ensure their safety and sustainability. All measures need to be put in place and we should not compromise in any way with the infrastructure.”

The Delhi Crafts Museum needs considerable modernisation and expansion of its textile section. Technological advancement is a key area we must focus on. Jaya Jaitly

With historical objects, the building needs to have a system that reduces oxygen at once on the detection of a fire so that the flames don’t spread farther. Uma Nair