Over 200 students from more than 13 schools across Chennai gathered at the Ganesan Matriculation School, Velachery, for the release of The Jungle Gang, the first Indian wildlife film series made exclusively for children and young adults. This is a first-of-its kind initiative by WWF-India to instil the thought of wildlife conservation at the school level.
This animated movie series, released in four languages — English, Hindi, Tamil and Assamese, has been created by Earthcare Films and supported by WWF-India. The Tamil version of the movie was screened after an interactive presentation by R Aengals, a Scientist from the Zoological Survey of India for the students that covered various wildlife issues.
The film portrays three animated animal characters – Bo (a bar headed goose), Kuttu (a slender loris) and Bhoora (a black buck) who travel together to different parts of the country and seek out endangered animals such as the Indian one horned rhino, tiger, elephant and sloth to narrate their stories to the children across the world. Set in simple language and with loads of fun elements, each of the four films in the series is about 15 minutes in length. The kids at the event enjoyed a peak into the world of these animals. A quiz followed the screening which saw the enthusiastic participation of school kids. S Saravanan, senior educational officer, WWF said, “A copy of the movie has been given free of cost to every school that has participated in this event.” He also pointed out other events such as the Wild Wisdom Quiz that will be held as a state-level event this September for schools in every state. “We have planned to release a book in a month or two on Climate Change for school teachers. We are on the lookout for a venue,” said A Vijayabharathi, state coordinator, WWF India. The CD is priced at `150 and is available at the WWF- Tamil Nadu state office.