Gandhinagar: A gaggle of school children of assorted sizes watched awestruck as a 40 ft long model of the whale shark was inflated before their eyes this morning. Vhali the whale shark drew people like a magnet at ‘Samvaad’, an event organized by the Center for Environmental Education (CEE) at Koba near Gandhinagar, the capital of the western state of Gujarat. Rupa Gandhi, the coordinator of the campaign to save the world’s largest fish recounts her interaction with representatives from 271 villages across Gujarat at this event.

My first interaction with Mangubhai, a 70 year old villager from the district of Sabarkantha in North Gujarat had me in splits. We had just begun inflating the whale shark model, when I heard Mangubhai call out to his villagers, “Come and look at this helicopter! They are trying to fill it with air to make it fly”. His reaction also made me realize the challenging task of introducing the whale shark to 2000 villagers, most of who had never imagined a fish of this size before.

The campaign to save the whale shark until now concentrated in building awareness on the protected status of the fish along the coast of Gujarat. An event like ‘Samvaad’ was an ideal opportunity to interact with people from assorted villages from further inland in the state.

Seventeen districts from Gujarat had sent in selected representatives comprising of village headmen, school teachers, students and enterprising workers from the small sector. Workshops on sustainable development and exhibits continued through the two days that followed the inauguration of the event by the Governor of Gujarat, Mr. Naval Kishore Sharma.

Crowds began trickling in from daybreak and an hour before the formal inauguration, the air blower was switched on to inflate Vhali, the life-sized whale shark model. This was when Mangubhai came up with his call that had all and sundry crowding the display, trying to touch and feel the inflatable.

The students squatted in front of the information panels, noting every detail in the notebooks that were thoughtfully supplied by CEE. In spite of the printed handouts given out by the whale shark campaign manager Dhiresh Joshi, each child diligently penned down each word from the display panels.

The children paid no heed to the frantic announcements that coaxed them to take their seats in the enclosure. Minutes before the Governor was to arrive, they had to be forcibly herded in by their respective teachers.

The most amusing sight was that of the Governor’s security personnel, who rushed to see the whale shark seconds after the Governor was ushered into the formal inaugural function.

A unique corporate –NGO partnership between Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) with Tata Chemicals Limited (TCL) has succeeded in reaching out to the target audience of the coastal community in Gujarat with the message of conservation of the world’s biggest fish.

“Awareness on the protected status through street plays and the life-sized inflatable model of the whale shark has been so strong that a whale shark that was caught in the fishing nets last month was released by the crew in a never-before incident,” says Joshi.

“We have felt the need to generate pride among the populace of Gujarat and ‘Samvaad’ provided just the platform to interact with the rural populace from remote villages,” added Joshi. “We have achieved in a day at no cost what would have taken us months of travel and expenditure,” enthused Joshi.

The campaign to save the whale shark and make it the pride of Gujarat aims to reach out to people in the interiors through disseminating information in the form of school displays, contests, melas, games, street plays and events.

‘Samvaad’, which means dialogue, has opened a dialogue with the community and Vhali the whale shark has won the hearts of all present there. Some schools have even invited Joshi to their towns and villages to talk about the world’s biggest fish found near the shores of their homeland.

When I asked a class 6 th student happily clutching his whale shark flag on what he would do with the hand out, he replied, “I will tell my villagers back home about this fish”, which is what the campaign had aimed for in the first place.

This event was a platform to introduce the fish to the rural populace from the interiors of Gujarat. The ‘Samvaad’ continues till Vhali attains a place of pride on the wildlife map of Gujarat.

Picture credits: Khalid – Studio Pixel/WTI