State governments are offering subsidies to build caravan parks, and camper vans for hire. But are Indians ready for the van life?
Kapil Sharma, a businessman from Ajmer, Rajasthan has been holidaying out of a van with his wife Bhavisha, and kids
For the last 345 days, Ravi Sanganamaina has been living in a van and travelling across India. Travelling from Kanyakumari to Ladakh, the 25-year-old took up living in a van as a challenge. He spent his earnings modifying a van with the help of Navkar Motors in Vadodara to accommodate storage, a bed, charging points, solar panels, a battery, and more. And, for all of 2024, he has been living, working, and carrying about life, travelling all out of a van.
ADVERTISEMENT
Sanganamaina is perhaps the only Indian to be living in a van permanently. But social media tells us about several van-lifers who have given up their homes in the West to make a caravan their permanent home. Recently, YouTube released a short documentary, Switching Lanes, which features creators who have chosen the van life. The van life phenomena grew exponentially post the COVID-19 pandemic, which allowed people to work out of anywhere as long as they had a laptop and an Internet connection. It also led to a spurt in van life creators, who have garnered over a billion views on their content on YouTube alone. It’s what inspired Sanganamaina to take up the challenge.
After studying and working in the UK for Amazon, in 2022 Sanganamaina travelled for 40 days within the country and met several people living in a caravan. His curiosity pushed him to learn how they had modified caravans, what they did for work, and how some had even managed to leverage social media to acquire brand sponsorships and continue living in the van. It sounded doable, and Sanganamaina returned home to Gajwel, Telangana. He worked in India for a year, saved his earnings, and finally set off from Kanyakumari on January 1 2024, to tour India and live and work out of a van. Sanganamaina also launched an Instagram account to document his journey and within nine days, saw his videos generate millions of views.
In 2021, the Maharashtra Government approved a caravan tourism policy that allowed for the development of caravan parks to be built on private and government land. The Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) and MOTOHOM have also launched a Vanity van and an Innova for this purpose, which can be hired to tour the state. It became the third state after Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka to get such a policy. More recently, the Kerala state government in October announced to provide a subsidy of up to 10 per cent of investment costs for the first 50 caravan parks to be built in the state. However, these attempts by governments have seen a lukewarm response.
Commenting on these efforts, Jayesh Paranjpe, founder of The Western Routes, a travel company says, “There are three things we need to look at. One, these caravans come with a driver and there is no accommodation for the driver in the van. Next, road conditions are a major concern. In most areas, only a tempo traveller works. And finally, we still need infrastructure. In most areas, if you park the caravan somewhere, you are likely trespassing. We don’t know all the rules yet, and there are high chances of being harassed,” he says.
Yet, there’s Sanganamaina and a handful of others who have modified camper vans to suit their needs and use them to travel during holidays. Kapil Sharma, a businessman from Ajmer, Rajasthan has been holidaying out of a van with his wife Bhavisha, and kids. He admits, “The biggest challenge is finding a safe camping place,” especially when he’s travelling with his family. But as a camping enthusiast, he could not resist the thrill of caravan living. “When you are camping, you have to think of everything. You have to be careful of how much water you use, and how much electricity you are taking up. If the weather gets bad, you have few resources to protect yourself. It’s tough, but there is a lot to learn from it. And, I want my kids to learn that side of life too,” says Sharma. He adds that he often travels and camps with other families who have vans too, as larger groups often mean it’s easier to keep families safe.
Ravi Sanganamaina is perhaps the only Indian to be living in a van permanently
Sanganamaina, who is living his van life alone, says that he often parks overnight at petrol pumps. This offers him a safe space and allows him to fuel up and drive off early morning. But he has witnessed harassment in Arunachal Pradesh and in Bihar. “A lot of people don’t understand the vehicle. They can’t understand why or how someone lives like this. I had stopped for lunch in Arunachal after driving for over seven hours. Some locals from a nearby house came over and began to hit me. I requested them, tried to educate them, and finally had to leave. But Bihar was scarier, as it was a group of men with lathis, hitting my vehicle and asking for money. I gave them what I had, and managed to escape,” says Sanganamaina, adding that as an Indian, he understands the lack of knowledge about van life. “But we need to expose people to the idea of mobile living.”
In an attempt to promote caravan travelling and van living, Sharma with a few friends is organising the Biggest Camping Festival on December 21 and 22 near Jaipur. About 70 to 80 caravans will drive to the desert and camp through the weekend. “We have a group of over 200 people who have camper vans or modified vans. Last year, we did the same in Mukteshwar. The idea of this festival is to celebrate camping,” says Sharma.
But a group of about 200 caravan enthusiasts in a country as populated as ours is a poor number. Addressing that, Sharma adds, “It’s a budget-friendly way to travel, and it’s healthy too because you are often cooking your food instead of eating at restaurants. But I think for a lot of people the idea of a holiday is no cooking and relaxing. Giving up on comforts is not for everyone,” and continues that money is yet another factor why caravan tourism is not more popular. “Buying a camper van can cost close to R40 or R50 lakhs. I managed to get a second-hand vehicle and got a lot of work done on it. But I ended up spending close to R14 lakhs,” he says. Sharma and Sanganamaina add that state rules, vehicle registration, and policies on vehicle modification are hard to navigate. Camper vans are not allowed a private number and need to be registered as a tourist vehicle is also a separate challenge. “When I first went to register my vehicle, the officers asked me what is that? The authorities are also unaware,” says Sanganamaina.
So, will India ever be a hotbed for caravan tourism? “When MTSC launched caravan tourism, they made some noise but nothing came of it. It’s a hard sell because you have a section of people who want to drive the vehicle, but not a tempo traveller. They would rather drive a luxury car. As for luxury caravans, only a few are available in India and they come with a driver. I think the private and public sectors have to think of infrastructure first before promoting caravan tourism,” says Paranjpe.
Meanwhile, folks like Sharma are looking at investing in building a caravan park in Uttarakhand. In a couple of years, he hopes that he will have more to offer to the van life community.
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
