This story is from October 22, 2017

Indian museums vulnerable to attacks: Study

The study, based on preliminary site visits by a team of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to many of the country’s top museums, was carried out after a fire gutted a large section of the National Museum for Natural History in New Delhi in April last year.
Indian museums vulnerable to attacks: Study
Photo for representation only.
Key Highlights
  • At least 13 states are in the high earthquake risk Zone V, including Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal, J&K, U'khand and other northeastern states.
  • Delhi is in quake Zone IV, some others like Andhra and Odissa which have at least 70 museums, face high risk of tsunami and cyclone.
NEW DELHI: The National Disaster Management Authority, of which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the chairman, has drawn detailed guidelines for all museums across the country after a recent study showed all major museums across India were vulnerable to vandalism and face near destruction of priceless and rare artefacts from natural and man-made disasters.
The study, based on preliminary site visits by a team of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to many of the country’s top museums, was carried out after a fire gutted a large section of the National Museum for Natural History in New Delhi in April last year severely damaging the building and a large section of the collection and its library, including several rare artefacts.

The report on the guidelines for museum also cites how some rare collections at the Pratap Singh Museum in Srinagar, damaged during the 2014 floods, could have been saved if authorrities had taken measures to safeguard them from natural disasters.
The others facing high risk include the National Museum in New Delhi, the National Gallery of Modern Art in Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai, the Victoria Memorial in Kolkata, the Allahabad Museum and the Indian Museum in Kolkata among others.
At least 13 states are in the high earthquake risk Zone V, including Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, J&K, Uttarakhand and all of the north-eastern states. Delhi is in earthquake Zone IV, some others like Andhra Pradesh, which has at least 40 museums, faces high risk of tsunami and cyclone. Odisha has 30 museums and is highly vulnerable to tsunami and cyclone.
The study finds all the major museums also face high risk of vandalism. The National Gallery of Modern Art in Mumbai, for instance, has also been listed as being “vulnerable” to nuclear hazard due to its presence near the nuclear plant at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre.

The artefacts at these galleries such as the National Museum in Delhi, include rare collections of copper tools like axes, chisels, knives from the Harappan period. Some of the sculptures in the collection in stone, bronze and teracotta are from the 3rd centry BC. The relics of the Buddha from 5th-4th centry BC unearthed from Piprehwa are stored at the National Museum, besides Thankas (painted scrools) from Nepal, Tibet and Central Asia.
Vanicka Arora, the consultant to NDMA who anchored the study of museums and preparation of the guidelines, said: “Given the broad range of natural and human induced hazards that pose a threat to museums across India, it’s essential to increase focus on risk reduction at multiple levels.” Indian museums house diverse objects and collections, ranging from archaeological artefacts to priceless artworks, which have vulnerabilities that are difficult to address with standardised approaches, she said.
According to NDMA, “An earthquake with a magnitude of 6 on the Richter scale or more within 100 km of a museum will not only cause significant damage to the museum itself, but also potentially cripple infrastructure, basic as well as critical, and hamper access, rescue and relief operations to the museum’s visitors and staff”.
The site visits by the NDMA team at some of these museums revealed “inadequate automated security system; no clear chain of command for locking up or opening the museum; no manual back-up for security in case of emergency or a protocol in place for emergency response. In many cases collections were not documented or partially documented; the location of all objects not known; shelving not braced to earthquake, etc.”
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