PMNH To Have "Botanical Forest Diorama" To Display Variety Of Fish Species

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 21st Oct, 2018 ) :Pakistan Museum for Natural History (PMNH) will have a state of the art Forest Gallery titled "Botanical Forest Diorama" till the end of the year which will be a great addition for the researchers and students to explore different species of plants.

The ongoing work on establishing this gallery will be completed by the end of this year, Director General, PMNH, Dr. Rafique disclosed this while talking to APP.

The forest gallery will have specimen of variety of plant species, herbs and insects which would enable the students to conduct research and explore different aspects.

Listing the other initiatives being taken by PMNH for preservation of natural resources, he informed that the museum will also start work on establishing an `Ocean Gallery' during the next year to display a huge variety of specimen of fishes and things associated with their existence.

He said the PMNH has also envisaged the idea of establishing a Geopositioning Information System Lab which will help to identify the geo location from where the object belongs.

Dr. Rafique said establishing Ecology and Molecular labs were also his long awaited dreams on which his department will work in future.

He said PMNH will also submit PC-I for construction of its six lingering blocks to Ministry of Science and Technology till December to expand the display of museum and its activities which was benefiting for thousands of students.

The DG said, PMNH was the only museum, working under Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF), which has conserved the 1.5 million specimens of rich natural resources collected from all over the country and displaying in form of more than 150 attractive 2-D and 3-D exhibits.

He informed, PMNH has a display of some of the world's famous iconic specimens like 16 ton Whale Shark with a length of 41 feet, 80 feet long Blue Whale, extinct Balochitherium and 50 kg Python with a length of 18 feet.

The museum has state-of-the-art Gemstone gallery, Biodiversity Galley, 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 etc.

He said the museum has 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.

Dr Rafique said the number of visitors of the museums has been increased from 4, 00,000 up to 40,00,000 annually due to the efforts of the department, its scientists and other technical team who have also focused on innovative ideas.

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