Upgradation of Natural History Museum planned

Islamabad : Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad Hussain on Wednesday said the government was committed to upgrading the Pakistan Museum of Natural History to educate people about the country's ecology, geology, and paleontology.

Addressing the 15-day International Training Workshop on 'Design, Survey and Analysis of Wildlife Populations', the minister said the majority of the people didn't know about the National History Museum.

He said the PMNH had preserved 700 years old teeth of an elephant, which belonged to Jhelum, while it had preserved the natural history of Pakistan in terms of animals, plants, rocks, minerals, and fossils.

"Pakistan is a beautiful country and foreigners enjoy their time here a lot due to vast natural beauty. There are misconceptions about Pakistan abroad which need to be removed through an effective strategy," he said.

The minister called for preserving the wildlife ignored in the past and said the love of wildlife was an important aspect of the society.

He said the societies, which did not have love and affection for animals become victims of decline. "Unfortunately we are also lacking affection for humanity," he added.

"Ecosystem of the country is a great gift of nature to us," he said. The minister said the government would take steps to improve Islamabad Zoo, which was neglected by the previous governments.

Director General of the museum Dr Muhammad Rafique briefed participants about the workshop and said it would help them to protect the wildlife and environment.

He said the museum has state-of-the-art gemstone gallery, biodiversity gallery, birds of pakistan gallery, dinosaurs gallery, fossils gallery, gallery for higher plants, gallery for medicinal plants, gallery for lower plants, world of mammals, world of reptiles, world of fishes.

Dr Rafique said the museum had taken a number of initiatives for adding more varieties of natural resources in form of plants, animals, minerals, rocks, fossils etc. in the museum to attract more and more visitors.

"This museum, being the only one of its kind, is a source of education for thousands of the students and researchers, who visit it on a daily basis and are provided with a comfortable environment and the maximum facilitation to conduct study on different species," he said.