NEW DELHI: The Science Express Biodiversity Special train , an innovative exhibition on wheels that will cover 57 locations across the country in the next 194 days, showcasing India’s biodiversity , was flagged off from Delhi on Monday.The idea of this unique train, comprising 16 coaches, is to create awareness about the rich biodiversity of the country.Eight coaches of the train are dedicated to showcase the biodiversity spread across all bio-geographical zones of India through a variety of interactive exhibits, short films and videos that will be shown on plasma and LED TV screens, large format displays, kiosks and backlit panels.The remaining coaches have interesting and informative exhibits on climate change, energy and water conservation and other topical issues.Before culminating in Gandhinagar in Gujarat in February next year, the train will undertake a 17,000 km journey, stopping at many towns/cities including Kurukshetra, Ludhiana, Ramnagar (J&K), Tarn Taran, Meerut Cantonment, Shahjahanpur, Unnao, Basti, Ghazipur, Bilaspur, Amravati, Nasik, Koraput and Dharwad among other locations in different states.After flagging off the train jointly with railway minister D V Sadananda Gowda and MoS science and technology Jitendra Singh at Safdarjung railway station here, environment minister Prakash Javadekar said an advertising campaign (with exact dates and locations) would be launched soon to “sensitize and educate the masses on the nuances of the rich biodiversity of the country”."It is a journey of learning, spreading the message of biodiversity conservation and telling people that even in these modern times, we still have to depend on biodiversity,” he said.Since its launch in 2012, the Science Express Biodiversity Special (SEBS) train has covered 114 stations and traveled more than 37,000 km in the first two phases.Phase-I of SEBS was launched on World Environment Day (June 5) in 2012 while Phase-II took off on April 9 last year from the same station."It covered 62 locations (in these two phases). Over 22 lakh people, including 5 lakh students and 29,000 teachers from 6,005 schools, enjoyed learning in a fun-filled way," the environment ministry said.