Karnataka plans mobile rainforest museum to visit 31 districts
The Western Ghats on Wheels project aims to bring biodiversity education to schoolchildren in rural areas using a specially equipped bus.
The Karnataka State Western Ghats Conservation Task Force has conceptualised a mobile museum called ‘Western Ghats on Wheels’ to visit all 31 districts of the state. According to a report by Urban Acres, the project intends to bring the biodiversity of the Western Ghats to students, especially those in rural areas with limited access to forest landscapes.
The proposed facility will be a 15-metre multi-axle bus featuring a climate-controlled interior, flowing waterfalls, and shola vegetation representations. It will use augmented reality, three-dimensional holograms, and Internet of Things-based forest camera feeds powered by 5.2 kW of solar panels to showcase endangered wildlife and ecosystems.
Task force chairperson Tabrez Alam Shariff said the project allows students to experience Western Ghats ecological systems without visiting a forest. He stated the mobile museum could reach millions of students who might not otherwise see the region's ecological wealth. The bus is being designed to navigate narrow ghat roads to reach school campuses in remote areas.
The exterior of the vehicle will feature large murals of the Great Hornbill, black panther, and Royal Bengal tiger. The task force plans to seek a Guinness Book of World Records entry for the project as the world’s largest mobile biodiversity museum.
Discussions are currently underway with Volvo Group India to provide the bus. Shariff said that once the vehicle is secured, the interior and exterior transformation is expected to take about six months through a corporate social responsibility partnership.
The proposal was conceived under the guidance of Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, forest minister Ramalinga Reddy, and Additional Chief Secretary Anjum Parvez. Other task force initiatives include seeking heritage status for Myristica swamp regions and preparing an inter-state national policy for Western Ghats conservation.