Bengal Natural History Society (BeNHS) Papers

The Darjeeling Natural History Society was constituted towards the end of 1923. Its purpose was to maintain the Bengal Natural History Museum (BNHM) and work towards the other goals of the museum: promote study of natural history and curate a complete specimen collection from a limited area. The region of interest was defined as the erstwhile administrative districts of Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling, along with the neighbouring countries of Nepal, Bhutan, and Tibet. Government and municipal funding was insufficient for this work. Hence, a decision was made to enrol members and publish a quarterly journal to boost influx of funds. The journal in its initial stage (1926-1939) was called the Journal of Darjeeling Natural History Society. In 1940, the society was renamed as ‘Bengal Natural History Society’ to attract wider membership. The journal, hence renamed Journal of Bengal Natural History Society (JBeNHS) made an effort to show the journal was open to article contributions from all of the erstwhile Indian Empire and beyond. This move was motivated by a 20% cut from the government funding as a result of the ongoing freedom struggle and the resultant rise of costs. Despite these hurdles, JBeNHS continued to be published as a quarterly journal until 1958. 1959 onwards, it became a bi-annual journal due to shortage of funds and written contributions. JBeNHS publications halted after 1970, and the society was dissolved soon. The Department of Forests (Wildlife wing) Government of West Bengal took over responsibilities of the museum in 1976. The museum was shifted into the premises of Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park in 2015, with all its specimen and literary collections, and is currently under jurisdiction of the Director of the zoological park.