Bengaluru’s nature classrooms launches game on butterfly migration
Bengaluru-based Nature Classrooms has released a new butterfly migration and life-cycle game titled Monsoon Wings, aimed at helping children and adults understand one of South India’s great natural spectacles.
Conceptualised by Aswathi Asokan, manager of curriculum development, resources and training at Nature Classrooms, the game takes players through the journey of butterflies migrating from the Western Ghats to the Eastern Plains and back.
Asokan, a nature educator, researcher and conservationist, said her journey into butterflies began in 2019 as a Zoology student at Chennai’s Stella Maris College. She grew up on the IIT Madras campus.
The game was inspired by ‘Bird Survivor’ by Early Bird, an initiative of the Nature Conservation Foundation’s Education and Public Engagement Programme, which itself took inspiration from Cornell Lab of Ornithology. While running biodiversity programmes for Sunnyside Learning School in Chennai, Asokan adapted the bird migration mechanics to a butterfly context.
According to Nature Classrooms, Monsoon Wings can be played with children or adults who can read and has 6 rounds, each representing a stage of the butterfly’s journey. It covers multiple generations — butterflies reproduce and complete multiple life cycles before finishing their migration.
The game traces the annual South Indian migration, where species like Blue Tiger, Dark Blue Tiger, Common Crow, Double-branded Crow, Striped Tiger and emigrants travel up to 500 km to escape the heavy south-west monsoon in the Western Ghats, feeding and resting in the Eastern Ghats and plains where showers are milder till October. With the onset of the northeast monsoon in September-October, they migrate back to the Western Ghats.
Illustrated by Ketaki Watve and licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, the resource also includes natural history reading on “The Great South-Indian Butterfly Migration” and printable butterfly mascots.
Asokan said after the game, facilitators walk participants through what they learnt, asking them to describe the journey — using gamification to drive conservation awareness.
