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About
Us
[About
Us - Vision & Misssion -
Location Map]
The NMNH owes its genesis to Smt. Indira
Gandhi, the former Prime Minister, who while
considering new projects to be initiated in
1972 on the occasion of the 25th anniversary
of India's Independence, decided that the
country needs a Museum of Natural History to depict
its flora, fauna and mineral wealth to
provide an out of school facility for education of children
and to promote environmental awareness
among the masses. The NMNH opened its doors to the public in a
rented building in Mandi house on 5th June
1978, coinciding symbolically with the World Environment Day.
From a single Museum located in New Delhi,
the NMNH has extended its geographical range by establishing
Regional Museums of Natural History (RMNH)
in many parts of the Country such as Southern Region (Mysore),
Central Region (Bhopal) and Eastern Region
(Bhubaneswar). Two more Museums are being established in
Western Region (Sawai Madhopur) and
North-Eastern Region (Gangtok).
The NMNH at New Delhi caters to the needs of visitors by the following:
1. Visitor services: Includes various educational
programmes, publications, information services, film shows etc.
2. Exhibition services: Includes various types of Exhibitions such as Permanent (Galleries), and Temporary.
It also includes specialised resources such as Discovery Room and Activity rom.
Educational programmes: The
NMNH organises a large number of educational programmes throughout the
year.
These may be classified as interpretation,
extension, in-reach, and out-reach programmes. Interpretation programmes
are services provided in the Museum Galleries.
Extension programmes includes services provided outside the Museum to
schools
who have been to the Museum earlier. Out-reach
programmes include special services provided to those who cannot visit
the Museum.
In-reach programmes are special services provided
inside the Museum to those who generally do not visit the Museum.
Guided tours: Visitors to the NMNH are generally provided with guided tours of the Galleries
by trained Educational Assistants on request.
Vacation programmes: During
the summer and winter vacation periods, the Museum organise a large
number of special
programmes involving in-house and out-reach
programmes and nature camps The programme consists of museum studies,
discussion sessions,
outdoor nature explorations, observation and analysis
of pollution problem in the urban environment, individual project
assignments and
exposure to the ecosystem in a National Park or
Wildlife Sanctuary in India.
Programme for Children with different abilities:
The NMNH organises a large number of educational programmes to cater
to the needs of Children with different abilities
related to vision, speech/ hearing, locomotion, mind etc. These include
special
structured guided tours of museum galleries,
'Touch, Feel and Learn' programmes, use of audio-aids and Braille
materials.
It also organises special competitions. As part of
its Museum Accessibility Programmes, the NMNH also organises
professional
capacity building workshops for Museum people
for sensitising them about the special needs of children with different
abilities.
Teacher Orientation Workshops: One
of the primary target audiences of the NMNH is schoolteacher for
whom it organizes regular training workshops.
Such workshops are generally intended to expose schoolteachers to the
resource materiel available at the Museum which
may help in classroom teaching.
Film Shows: The Museum has
an extensive collection of films on wildlife, ecology, conservation and
the environment in general. Films are
screened every day for the visitors at 11:00 AM and 3:00 PM at
the Museum Eco Theater in second floor.
Publications: The NMNH
occasionally publishes popular literature on environmental related
topics,
worksheets and workbooks for use by
children. These include "take-home leaflets" on selected exhibits and
nature study project
packages for youngsters. These are
available to schools on request.
Information services/ Library: The
Museum provides information to public through its library which has a
good
collection of reference books on natural
history, wildlife and ecology. It is frequently used by students for
project work
and by Researchers.
The NMNH New Delhi has three exhibit galleries, namely:
"Introduction of Natural History", "Nature's Network: Ecology" and "Conservation".
Gallery 1: The Gallery 1 on
“Introduction to Natural History” portrays the origin and evolution of
life and presents the variety and diversity of the
flora and fauna of our country. The presentation follows a section on
evolutionary
sequences and evidences to establish how the
present day life evolved. Another section depicts the plants and
animals in
their natural habitat followed by pollination in
flowers, plants and their uses, harmful and beneficial insects,
camouflage,
adaptation of terrestrial, aquatic and aerial life
in animals, endangered animals etc. These sections not only provide
useful
information to the visitors but also serve
as valuable resources in supplementing the classroom teaching.
Gallery 2: The Gallery 2 on
“Nature's Network: Ecology” presents an overview of major ecosystems of
the world,
role of plants as primary producers,
food chains, food webs, decomposition, bio-geochemical cycles,
Interrelationship
among plants, animals and human
beings, present day environmental problems such as pollution,
deforestation, depletion
of wildlife etc. and the reasons
(ethical, aesthetic, economic and scientific) for conservation.
Gallery 3: The Gallery 3 on
“Conservation” deals with many aspect of conservation of nature. A
dramatic life size
diorama of a typical deciduous
forest presents two contrasting views (one with a rich, balanced forest
ecosystem and the
other of denuded, deforested and
barren terrain). That deforestation is the thoughtless exploitation of
trees by human being
is presented symbolically through an
oversized model of human hand ruthlessly uprooting a tree. Exhibits
that follow give a
didactic view of the importance of
trees in conserving soil. Conversely deforestation leads to soil
erosion,
siltation of riverbeds and formation
of wastelands. Other exhibits in the section show how valuable the
tropical rain
forests are for mankind. These
forests are the rich repository of genetic and biological diversity,
Subsequent sections
of the Gallery deals with depletion
of wildlife, endangered species as well as conservation projects. The
problem of pollution
and increasing pressure of human
population on internal resources are some of the other themes presented
through exhibits.
Two exhibits that stand out are on
Bishnois community and Chipko andolan.
Discovery and Activity Rooms: These
are two resource facilities meant for children of higher and lower ages
respectively.
The principle of discovery learning
theory is generally used where learning is through activities and
enjoyable. Children
are free to choose one or several of
the activities provided. Opportunities are provided for children to
handle and examine
specimens, participate in creative
activities such as modeling and painting and exploration of discovery
boxes. Children to
sensitised to explore nature, develop
creative talent and to bring in them a sense of inquiry and scientific
outlook.
There are games, touch exhibits, and a
number of participatory exhibits. Children can develop animal stories
with the help
of cutouts and a Magneto Board,
piece together jigsaw puzzles, measure their weight and height and also
check their eyesight.
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NEW
DELHI: The National Museum of Natural History was destroyed after a
fire broke out in the FICCI building that it is housed in, early on
Tuesday morning.
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