Like the forgotten temple of an archaic sect, it is revered by few – besides the odd wildlife enthusiasts, they are mostly biologists, naturalists, and wildlife conservationists who understand its importance. [break]Other than the occasional group of students on field trips, the museum rarely draws visitors in large numbers.
The museum staffs lament the indifferent attitude of the authorities. “The Natural History Museum is underestimated by people at the decision-making levels. It is not in their priority, and the budget allocated to us only covers our salaries,” says Karan Bahadur Shah, in-charge of the Herpetology and Mammal sector of NHM.
It has been difficult for the museum to prosper with a meager budget and almost non-existent public interest. But Dr Keshab Shrestha, chief of the museum, believes it’s not just funds that are lacking.
“Government officials don’t even know where our museum is,” puts in Dr Shrestha. According to him, we as a country haven’t realized the importance of preserving biodiversity. “Britain’s biodiversity is not as rich as Nepal but their natural history museum’s collection is much richer. They have always stressed preservation,” he states.
The NHM was established in 1975 with the growing need to preserve Nepal’s natural wealth for posterity. Since its establishment, the museum has amassed over 50,000 specimens of Nepal’s flora and fauna. The value of this collection, however, lies not in its size but in its uniqueness, rarity, and diversity.
Specimens of rare and endangered species such as the Royal Bengal Tiger, Sarus Crane, Red Panda, Giant Hornbill, and the King Cobra are on display. There are also some bizarre specimens: a goat embryo with eight legs, and a two-headed snake.
“Extinct creatures that can be read about only in books or seen in photographs can be viewed here,” informs Shah. One such specimen is the Mouse Deer (Indian Chevrotain), a deer species now believed to be extinct in Nepal. Perhaps the most prized item in the collection is the molar tooth of a Shivapithecus, a hominoid (a primitive human being), and the fossilized skull of an Archidiskodon, an elephant that inhabited the Siwalik Hills of Nepal. The former dates back 8-10 million years, and the latter is around three million years old.
However, despite these rare specimens, the museum fails to attract the public. The museum chief reasons it to ignorance. “Lack of information and knowledge has dragged us down. We’re ignorant of our own natural wealth,” he opines.
When asked if the public preferred national parks to a museum, Dr Shrestha admits that a museum is no match for nature’s grandeur because dead specimens fail to inspire the same awe as living wild animals. Nonetheless, he believes a museum has certain advantages over wilderness. “In a museum, you can see a lot more creatures,” he says.
To those who do visit the museum on rare occasions will find its poor infrastructural conditions quite appalling. Due to lack of funds, the museum staff, despite putting in their bests, is forced to display nearly 500 different specimens in a cluttered space. Limited to a single floor, the museum has only one big hall that stretches up to nearly 30 meters, without any temperature monitoring devices to ensure the longevity of specimens.
Since 1977, NHM has been publishing the Journal of Natural History Museum, the oldest natural history annual journal in Nepal. But the journal, too, like the museum, is facing severe funding challenges, which, according to Shah, are arranged from outside the museum.
The museum’s plight becomes even more perturbing when one considers the fact that it is the scientific authority in fauna for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) of Wild Fauna and Flora in Nepal. Despite the odds, the museum organizes training programs on CITES-related issues for teachers, students, employees of protected areas, and others. It is also one of the few, if not the only, places that provide trainings in taxidermy.
The museum’s brochure states that through its specimens of gaping crocodiles, snarling tigers, and other rare and extinct species, it hopes to “deliver an urgent message that the Nepalis themselves are trustees of this fragile natural heritage.” Sadly, the urgency of the message has yet to be realized.
Although the museum’s specimens have remained relatively unaffected by time, their species in the wild have suffered major setbacks.
“Only twenty years ago, Black-bellied terns could be seen in the water-logged ditches along the East-West Highway,” ornithologist Dr Hem Sagar Baral gives an example and furthers, “Today, you can only see them in the Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve. And there’s no certainty of seeing them either.”
In 2004, in its publication, “The State of Nepal’s Birds,” Bird Conservation Nepal declared 133 out of Nepal’s total of 865 bird species to be nationally threatened.
Birds dependent on wetlands are the most vulnerable as water bodies are rapidly degrading. “Rivers, ponds, and swamps are no longer clean. Migratory birds coming to Kathmandu have nowhere to rest and feed,” laments Hari Sharan “Kazi” Nepali, who has been studying Nepal’s birds for the past 60 years. Some birds, on the other hand, have adapted to the degraded environment.
Dr Baral’s 16 years of study on water birds in the Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve has shown a dramatic decline in their numbers. In 1994, the year he began his study, there were 21,697 birds at two sites. In 2010, surveying six sites, he found only 4,352 birds.
Since 1846, nine bird species have become extinct in Nepal, and mammal species are on the decline as well. Out of the 210 mammal species, 48 are nationally threatened and 32 fall under the category of globally threatened species. “Wild Yaks could be seen until a few decades ago in Dolpo and Mustang, but not anymore,” states Dr. Rinjan Shrestha, a conservation biologist at World Wildlife Fund Nepal. The Wild Yak is now considered extinct in Nepal.
Shah blames impunity and corruption for Nepal’s dwindling biodiversity. He cites an incident eight years ago when a poacher was arrested with a rhino horn. After the horn was examined to deduce basic information by a technician at the laboratory of the then Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), it was handed over to the police. Another poacher was arrested with a rhino horn. When it was taken to NAST’s laboratory, the person there identified it to be the same horn, which he had recently examined.
“Poachers aren’t the only ones to blame,” points out Shah, who believes that social vices such as corruption and greed are also threats to wildlife. “A rhino horn sells for Rs 700,000. If a poacher can have himself acquitted by spending Rs 200,000 on bribes, he still makes a profit of Rs 500,000. What will deter a poacher when he knows money will save him?” he questions. For him, the problem faced by wildlife conservation is not technical, but rather a social one.
If the exploitation of our natural resources continues at the same rate, in the future there may be throngs of visitors at the Natural History Museum. We are creating trapdoors in the vanishing act of biodiversity—doors that’ll take them from their habitats to the shelves in a museum, which unfortunately, is also poorly maintained.
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