Ahmedabad: Visitors to the Centre of Environment Education (CEE) in Ahmedabad were amazed at the sight of a 40 ft fish on the lawns. As each of the 1500 visitors touched and felt this man-made wonder, it was obvious that Vhali the whale shark was clearly the star of the World Environment Day.

The life-sized inflatable model of the world’s largest fish was displayed here as part of the theme exhibits on oceans and seas. The World Environment Day celebrations at CEC included a host of activities that incorporated fun into learning. “In addition to the regular exhibits, children had the opportunity to participate in quizola, which was designed to be a combination of a quiz and a tambola, said Dhiresh Joshi, WTI’s whale shark campaign manager.

Active participation was ensured with prizes sponsored by Tata Chemicals Ltd., one of the two corporate houses which are actively supporting the whale shark campaign in Gujarat . A lot of kids even carried Vhali the whale shark home on their bodies, painted as a tattoo!

The whale shark was upgraded to the Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act in May 2001. Although poaching has greatly reduced subsequent to this, legal protection is not enough. It is extremely difficult to continuously patrol the nearly 1600 km Gujarat coastline, which is one-third of the entire coastline of India . Building awareness among the people of Gujarat about this fish was thus perceived as the key to protection of this fish.

The campaign to spread awareness about the world’s largest fish, which was till recently being brutally slaughtered along the Gujarat coast for export, is being spearheaded by the Wildlife Trust of India and its partner, the International Fund for Animal Welfare and is being supported by two major corporate houses with units in the state: the Gujarat Heavy Chemicals Ltd and Tata Chemicals Ltd.

A survey initiated by WTI and conducted by TNS Mode on awareness showed a wide gap in awareness among the coastal fishing community and the populace elsewhere in the state. While awareness among the fishing community is high in certain coastal towns, it is the urban populace that needs to be educated about this fish. An event held in Porbandar last month succeeded in the Porbandar Nagarpalika adopting Vhali the whale shark as their city mascot. “It is perceived that the whale shark could be made the pride of Gujarat along with the Asiatic lion and be elevated to the position of the State Fish,” said Aniruddha Mookerjee , Director, Wildlife Trust of India.

In an earlier phase of the campaign, the whale shark model was taken through towns and fishing villages on the coast of Gujarat with a street play enacted in front of the model to build awareness about protecting this fish and educating fisher folk on the legal implications on hunting this protected fish.

WTI now aims to take the whale shark campaign from the coastal town into the cities and villages in land to build awareness and generate pride in this visitor who comes from as far as Australia to breed in the waters off the coast of Gujarat . “The life-sized model of the whale shark achieved this objective at CEE on World Environment Day because in addition to providing a glimpse of the world’s largest fish, it also instigated the children to ask a lot of questions,” said Dhiresh.