Goa Heritage Action Group

This is the text of a letter published in the journal Current Science, 10 August 2010:

In the nearly 20 years of our research on fossils in India, we have seen the country move from an underdeveloped third world nation to an economic tiger, fiercely independent, and interacting with other countries on equal footing.

Shiva Vinadhara (Holder of the Lute). Tamil Nadu, Chola period bronze, ca. 950 (Image: Smithsonian Institute)

The wealth and international stature that India has gained are the envy of much of the developing world, and India, its government as well as its people, can be proud to have chosen a path that has delivered these riches.

India knows that any responsible nation that can afford to preserve its heritage does so. To this end, India is moving proverbial mountains: closing factories in order to save the Taj Mahal from air pollution, and spending crores to reduce water pollution of its holy river.

In order to conserve their heritage, great nations have created museums, consisting of exhibits that educate the public, and repositories that store  scientifically important specimens so that future scientists can study them. Whereas the Indian Museum in Kolkata and the National Museum of Natural History in Delhi fulfil some of the exhibit functions, they lack modern curatorial and storage facilities for scientific specimens.

Whereas the Natural History Museum of London, and the Smithsonian Institution of Washington are amongst the most famous and most respected institutions of Britain and the United States, India lacks an equivalent. This is ironical, since much of the success of those foreign museums is based on collections made abroad.

India has a rich geological history, spanning more than 2500 million years, and documenting key moments in evolution from the first record of life to the first whales, yet nowhere is this heritage displayed and comprehensively preserved. It is even more ironical, since, unlike most other societies, the deep-time roots of earth were recognized even in ancient Indian culture. Some of India’s institutions do collect, exhibit, and store such specimens: for instance, the Geological Survey of India, Wadia’s Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun, and the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, Lucknow. However, these institutions only curate specimens collected by their own scientists and preserving the heritage of all of India is not part of their mission.

Much of India’s geological and palaeontological heritage consists of specimens collected by faculty members of Indian universities on Indian soil and preserved at their academic institutions. However, as those institutions are not museums, they cannot maintain specimens when there is no in-house researcher actively working with them. These specimens, rock samples, fossils, and microscope slides, risk being orphaned, forgotten and lost when the scientists that studied them retire. India needs to realize that these specimens, like the Taj Mahal, cannot be replaced and are part of India’s heritage. These specimens, which should be the object of national pride and international respect, deserve to be preserved.

Collections breathe life into science when they are curated and accessible. They inspire young people to study India’s heritage, and encourage foreigners to learn about India. India needs a central repository that can curate such specimens after researchers retire. A great nation deserves a great museum.

J G M Thewissen and Nigel Hughes (Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Northeastern Ohio Universities, College of Medicine, Rootstown, Ohio and Department of Earth Sciences, University of California, Riverside, California, both USA)