Zoological Survey of India inks MoU with London museum
- IBEF
- September 27, 2021
The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) and the Natural History Museum (NHM) in London signed a formal collaboration agreement on September 24, 2021. This is the first time that India's 105-year-old animal taxonomy organisation, based in Kolkata, has collaborated with a prominent foreign science research centre. NHM and ZSI share a same history.
Since its founding in 1881, the National Museum of Natural History has been a world-class attraction with a diverse collection of specimens. And ZSI's priceless archive fauna may be found in museums all around the world, including the National Museum of Natural History.
Though ZSI was founded in 1916, India did not begin storing its own collections here until 1947, making ZSI the greatest storehouse of fauna in the south and southeast Asia.
On a virtual platform, Mrs. Dhriti Banerjee, ZSI's first woman director, and Mr. Douglas Gurr, director, NHM, signed a five-year Memorandum of Understanding. Mr. David Gower, head of the NHM's vertebrates division department of life sciences; Mr. John Jackson, head of science; and Ms. Rosalind Glass, NHM's board of trustees, were also present. Scientists and top officials from the ZSI logged in from all around India.
Though NHM and ZSI, the ministry of environment, forestry, and climate change's umbrella body for biodiversity research, had been collaborating on projects and exchanging specimens on loan, this was their first formal partnership. “This Memorandum of Understanding was long overdue. Through scientific interaction between two great institutions and a long-standing partnership, we will gain mutually on faunal diversity research,” the ZSI director stated.
Mr. Gurr expressed gratitude to the Indian government. “Because ZSI and NHM both have a love for natural history, we can work together to improve science. We can conserve our vital specimens and look forward to research activities if we work together,” he added. “The partnership will benefit not just both institutions, but millions of valuable collections that are significant nationally and globally, as well as sustainable bio-resource management and the impact of climate change,” Mr. Gurr added.
“We want to collaborate to collect, analyse, and conserve faunal specimens for science, as well as produce and share data and images,” Mr. Banerjee added.
The institutions have agreed to implement the 1973 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity, as well as applicable national and regional biodiversity laws and regulations through this MoU.
Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.
Partners
