ATREE’s The Family WilD Quest 1.o

AS Article 51 A of the constitution of India says “It shall be the duty of every citizen of India to protect and improve the natural environment including forest, lakes, rivers, and wildlife and to have compassion for living creatures” the ATREE’s Family WilD Quest 1.O, an annual Wildlife Quiz Competition for students along with their parents was conducted on December 30, 2018, to make students explore, encourage and award the budding talent more aware of conservation and protection of the Indian wildlife and to focus their attention towards the importance of Kalakad-mundanthurai Tiger Reserve and Tamiraparani Landscapes. The programme was inaugurated by Mr. S. Nambiraj, Former Director, RSETI, Tirunelveli at the District Science Centre, Tirunelveli. This competition made students to look beyond their textual knowledge and established a relationship between wildlife and application of the learnt concepts in conservation.

It consists of two stages such as Elimination Written Round and ’on stage’ Finals. Forty-three teams with two participants each from the same family participated in the paper and pen Elimination Round with 25 multiple choice questions related to the environment. In that maximum 00 questions were answered correctly.  Out of 43 families, six families were selected for the Final On-Stage Round.

On-stage round was conducted at 2.30 pm on the same day at Innovation Hub, District Science Center, Tirunelveli. The 6 teams with two participants each were named as Cullinia, Pangolins, Bustards, Sitana, Chalazodes and Apis. Questions were asked exclusively from Indian wildlife in 4 rounds. The first round, Matriarch Round consists of 24 questions in 4 sets. Based on the points scored in the Matriarch Round, the teams were given priority to choose a topic for the Falcon Round. Totally 60 questions were fired in Falcon Round; 10 questions each in Plants, Habitats, Insects, Herpetofauna, Mammals, and Potpourri. The Display Round comprised of 18 questions projected as images, audios, videos, Map Location, Newspaper articles, etc. was conducted as a buzzer round. In the final Grand Slam Round, a question was asked and the clue for the question was given in the form of shuffled picture blocks and team members arranged them to answer the question. In this competition 00 (00%) questions out of 103 were answered correctly. Ms. S.M. Somasundhari of grade 9, The Pioneer School, Nagercoil with her father Mr. Shunmuga Sundaram became the maiden ‘The Family WilD Quest 1.O’ Champion with 00 points. Ms. S. Varsha, Grade 8 with her mother Ms. Arul Selvi of AUPET Chinmaya Vidyalaya Matric. Hr. Sec. School, Tirunelveli, and Ms. Sivasoumini, Grade 8 with her father Mr. Senthil Kumar of AUPET Chinmaya Vidyalaya Matric. Hr. Sec. School, Tirunelveli placed second and third position respectively. Following the on-stage finals, Mr. S. Lenin Sudhakar, AGS, IOBOA, Dr. A. Francis Roy, President, Nellai Nature Club, and Mr. S. Muthukumar, District Science Officer, District Science Centre, Tirunelveli honored the finalists and the winners with specially designed ‘WilD Quest Owl’ and certificates.

The 6 finalists along with 7 audience who answered the most questions passed to the audience were taken to Kalakad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR) for the ‘Winners on a Nature Trail’ with Tamil Nadu Forest Department to explore the rich biodiversity and ecosystem services of KMTR to human wellbeing especially for the people of southern Tamil Nadu on January 05, 2019. 32 participants partaken the trail and witnessed the glory of Mundanthurai’s Dry Deciduous Forest vegetation in the Puckle’s Path. Sighting Scats and Pugmarks of Leopard, Dung of Elephant, Birds Call, Butterflies, etc. added curiosity during the hike. Mr. Murugasen, Forester, Ambasamuthuram Range guided the entire team and gave a valuable note about the local fauna and flora from his 20 years of experience in KMTR. The programme came to an end with a feedback session from the participants.