School kids lead way in tiger, environment protection

Mumbai, Feb 7 (UNI) Hundreds of the city's school children from 35 schools participated in a day-long ''Save the Tiger'' festival at the Maharashtra National Park at Dharavi today.

Children enthusiastically participated in various activities like manning stalls on protection of environment and animals, T-shirt painting, clay modelling and quiz competitions. A number of NGOs' had also set up their stalls.

''Our stall is about saving animals from various harmful activities,'' said Aweas Shaikh, a class nine student from St Mary's School, Mazgaon, who manned an animal protection stall with his classmates.

''We have a conservation and tiger club with weekly presentations and are also encouraged to take part in nature trails, rallies and camps,'' said Zaha Biya, a class eight student of Gopi Birla Memorial School, Walkeshwar.

''Kids are very educated in environment and wildlife protection and they are trying to tell us that they don't want to inherit a 'dead' planet,'' observed Jayeash Paranjape, Co-ordinator, Kids for Tigers.

''The Tiger fest is a culmination of a year-long activities like audio-visual shows, nature trails and painting competitions among 100 schools of the city,'' he said.

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