Indian museum razed by fire

The museum which was opened by Indira Ghandi in 1978 is the first and only natural history museum in India.

In addition to the flora and fauna collections, it also displays several fossils, one of which is the femur bone of a dinosaur belonging to the Sauropod group.

The inferno reportedly started around 2 am Tuesday (local time),  and no one was in the building during the inferno, though 6 firefighters were injured.

The museum has been described as a "national treasure" whose loss "cannot be counted in rupees"

India's Minister of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar has asked for an assessment of the damage, including what artifacts were lost.

The is also home to a reference library for scholars and has more than 15,000 books.