Gass Forest Museum in Coimbatore is now open for visitors

A giant stuffed Indian Gaur from the Biligiri Hills of Karnataka greets you even before you enter the towering two-tiered Gothic-style mansion that holds one of India’s largest and oldest natural history collections. Nestled among greenery at the sprawling forest campus of Tamil Nadu Forest Academy, the iconic 120-year-old Gass Forest Museum named after Horace Archibald Gass in recognition of his efforts and contributions, hosts as many as 4000 artefacts including wildlife, timber and non-timber forest produce, geological samples, tribal armaments, entomological specimens and forest engineering models. Notable exhibits in Gass Forest Museum There is also a skeleton section with the skeleton of an elephant and a bull. “A result of the efforts of one man, HA Gass, who painstakingly built the repository on natural history for the benefit of future generation of students, researchers, and the public.” Reaching out Along with ongoing Prakriti Nature Connect programme for students there is a three-day Junior Rangers Programme exclusively for students of Government Schools that exposes students to understand the role of rangers in conservation and protection. “It has to begins with a visit here, a complete forest museum,” says S Saravanan, head of extension division of IFGTB.