Karnataka is planning a mobile rainforest museum that will travel across all 31 districts to bring the biodiversity of the Western Ghats to schoolchildren, particularly in rural areas that may have limited access to forest landscapes. Called ‘Western Ghats on Wheels’, the proposed facility will be built inside a 15-metre multi-axle bus fitted with immersive displays, living terrariums, augmented reality and live forest camera feeds.
The initiative has been conceptualised by the Karnataka State Western Ghats Conservation Task Force. According to the task force’s official release, the bus will recreate elements of a rainforest through a climate-controlled interior, flowing waterfalls and representations of shola vegetation. Three-dimensional holograms and augmented reality displays will be used to present endangered wildlife and ecosystems found in the Western Ghats.
Task force chairperson Tabrez Alam Shariff said the project was designed to allow students to experience the biodiversity and ecological systems of the Western Ghats without visiting a forest. He said the mobile museum could reach millions of students who may otherwise not get an opportunity to see the region’s ecological wealth firsthand.
The proposed museum is also being designed for operational use in remote parts of the state. The vehicle is intended to navigate narrow ghat roads and visit school campuses across Karnataka. Its technology systems are expected to include Internet of Things-based forest camera feeds, supported by 5.2 kW of solar panels. The live feeds would give visitors views of biodiversity in natural forest habitats.
The exterior of the bus will carry large murals depicting wildlife associated with the Western Ghats, including the Royal Bengal tiger, black panther and Great Hornbill. The task force plans to submit the project for recognition in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s largest mobile biodiversity museum, according to the report and the official release cited in it.
Discussions are underway with Volvo Group India to provide the bus. Once the vehicle is secured, its interior and exterior transformation is expected to take approximately six months through a corporate social responsibility partnership, Shariff said. The proposal has been conceived under the guidance of Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, forest minister Ramalinga Reddy and Additional Chief Secretary for forest, environment and ecology Anjum Parvez.
The mobile museum is part of a wider set of conservation and public-engagement proposals being pursued by the task force. These include seeking eco-sensitive zone and biodiversity heritage site status for ancient Myristica swamp regions, and preparing what the task force describes as the first inter-state national policy for Western Ghats conservation.
The task force is also planning an official anthem on the Western Ghats, to be rendered by singer Jaskaran Singh, and a ‘Treasure Hunt Passbook’ initiative in collaboration with UNESCO, WWF-India and India Post. The proposed bus, however, is the initiative with the clearest direct school-level outreach, taking conservation education to classrooms rather than relying on students to travel to protected landscapes.
