Rat infestation threatening priceless museum artefacts

A rat infestation is threatening one of India’s finest collections of royal artefacts at the country’s own Albert Hall – now a museum in the Rajasthani city of Jaipur.

- ARPAN RAI

With the rodents causing havoc on the grounds and closing in on the building and its treasures, the Albert Hall Museum has been shut to visitors for two days as pest control experts are called in.

The museum was opened in 1887 and named after Queen Victoria’s son Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales. It houses the belongings of generations of several Jaipur royal families and attracted between 900,000 and 1 million visitors in the last financial year, bringing in revenues of at least Rs50m (£450,000), officials told The Independent.

Now a team of some 30 pest control workers are racing to deal with the rat problem, placing pesticide-laced baits at points near rat holes in the museum and its historic grounds, officials from the Jaipur Development Authority (JDA) said.