Mizoram’s Natural History Museum has been notified as India’s 21st Designated Repository under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002.
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change notified the institution as a Designated Repository on the recommendation of the National Biodiversity Authority. Designated Repositories are an important component of India’s biodiversity governance framework, preserving authenticated biological specimens for scientific research and conservation.
The museum will maintain voucher specimens of selected flora, including pteridophytes and macrofungi, and fauna such as reptiles, amphibians, fishes, moths, beetles and butterflies.
The Ministry said that with this notification, Mizoram’s Natural History Museum becomes India’s 21st Designated Repository, further strengthening the country’s biodiversity conservation and scientific infrastructure.
Established in 2022 under the aegis of Mizoram University, the Natural History Museum is strategically located within the Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot and has specialised taxonomic expertise.
Mizoram and the wider North East region are home to more than 7,500 species of flowering plants and over 2,000 faunal species. The museum’s expertise in pteridophytes, macrofungi, moths, beetles and other lesser-studied taxa fills an important gap in India’s network of Designated Repositories and strengthens the scientific documentation of the region’s rich biodiversity.
