Efforts to be made to restore NMNH specimens: Javadekar

New Delhi: A day after a massive fire destroyed specimens of flora and fauna at the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), the government on Wednesday said assessment of losses is going on and all efforts will be made to restore the items.

"The assessment will come within a couple of days. Then we will be able to tell how much (of the items) can be restored. We will make all efforts," Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said on the sidelines of an event.

Nearly four-decade-old NMNH housing thousands of rare specimens of flora and fauna including a 160-million-year old fossil bone of the Indian Sauropod Dinosaur, at the heart of the capital was ravaged in the massive blaze.

The fire first started on the top floor of the six-storey FICCI building which housed the museum in Mandi House area of Central Delhi around 1.45 AM and rapidly spread to all other floors except the ground floor.

35 fire tenders were deployed to contain the blaze and six firemen were injured in the operation to douse the fire. The fire was brought under control at around 6 AM.

Yesterday, Javadekar had described the fire mishap as "unfortunate" and ordered a safety audit of all the 34 museums under his ministry.

The project of constructing a new museum will be done at an estimated cost of Rs 225 crore and while the conceptual work is in progress, a committee has also been formed for the purpose, the Ministry had said.

The 38-year-old museum had a rich collection of herpetological specimen, specimen of tigers and leopards, preserved butterflies and pre-historic fossils and all of them have been gutted.