03 May Rare flora and fauna destroyed
Rare and ancient specimens of flora and fauna were destroyed when a fire gutted a natural history museum in New Delhi. There was even an unconfirmed reported that a 160 million-year-old dinosaur fossil had been destroyed.
The blaze broke out on the sixth floor of the museum which was inaugurated in 1978 and contained preserved specimens of butterflies, frogs, snakes and lizards as well as mounted specimens of Tigers and lizards.
Thirty five firefighters, five of whom suffered injuries, fought through the night to try to extinguish the blaze but they were unable to prevent it spreading through every floor of the museum.
A Delhi fire service spokesman said the museum’s fire fighting system was out of operation because part of the build was in the process of being renovated. As a result of the blaze India’s federal Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, ordered a safety review of all of India’s state-run museums