Anand: In a sensitization exercise that involved a school contact programme coupled with participatory activities, more than 15000 school children in the milk capital of Gujarat were made aware of the world’s biggest fish that visits the shores of their homeland.

Vhali, the life-sized whale shark inflatable was taken around 19 schools in the Anand district, made famous by the brand Amul, by volunteers from the Vidyanagar Nature Club, even as floods cut off access to the place last month.

Dhaval Patel, the Managing Trustee of Vidyanagar Nature Club was overwhelmed at the response from schools on this education exercise. “We are under tremendous pressure from schools that we did not visit,” said Patel. “The life-sized inflatable of the whale shark had the kids awestruck. They were very surprised when told that inspite of its size, this fish was the gentlest of sea creatures,” he reported.

The joint campaign to save the whale shark and place it as the pride of Gujarat conducted by the Wildlife Trust of India and Tata Chemicals Limited completes two years. Among public events, discourses by Shri Morari Bapu-the religious leader, activities by Coast Guard, children’s activities and adoption of the fish as the city mascot by various towns, it is the children’s campaign that has proved to be most pro-active with the widest reach.

By conducting painting competitions, quiz contests, games, talks and by displaying the life-sized inflatable model, the campaign has made an impact on the next generation of impressionable minds, who are now sensitized to the conservation issue and who will be concerned citizens of tomorrow.

Dhiresh Joshi of Wildlife Trust of India who manages the Whale Shark Campaign in Gujarat said, “There was an element of risk whether the rains would hamper the campaign. But on the insistence of the volunteers that they would brave the rain and take up the challenge, we finalised the programme for Anand.”

Each day would start with the volunteers gazing skyward to predict if heavy rains would hamper their planned activities. Activities continued at Anand High School even as it poured. Takshashila High School had its grounds submerged under a foot of water, so the whale shark inflatable had to move into the corridors of the school.

The forty feet large inflatable indeed occupied all the space in the corridor, while the students shot questions to the committed volunteers who readily answered their queries, some intelligent, others just curious.

Dhriti Patel of angels education centre wanted to know if the inflatable model could swim in the flooded waters during the rain. More questions ranging from the feeding habits of the whale shark to the weight of its pups flew across to the volunteers. Children even wanted to know the quantity of oil that a whale shark liver yields, such was their involvement in this exercise.

The teachers of Vrajbhumi International School were very thankful to the team for bringing the whale shark to their school as they firmly believed in visual education and the sight of the life-sized model would communicate very well to the children about the fish.

The campaign had to be called off in Anand as it was scheduled to be taken up at another place but the schools that came to know about Vhali the whale shark have now started contacting the volunteers for a visit to their school in September.