A total of 85 students from 32 schools in the city participated in the painting competition for schoolchildren organised at the Indira Gandhi Zoological Park in connection with the World Environment Day on Thursday.
The participants ran wild with their brush on the given themes, as their classmates, parents and visitors thronged the ‘Bioscope’ centre at the zoo in large numbers to watch them in action.
The topic for children up to Class V is ‘nature’, for VI to VIII was on ‘environmental pollution’ and for students of IX and above it was ‘forest eco system’.
There were three prizes in each of the three categories in the competition besides a consolation prize.
Zoo Curator G. Ramalingam was present at the inaugural function. The participants surprised even their parents with their knowledge of environmental issues as they waxed eloquent on the theme: “Raise your voice, not the sea-level” on the occasion.
Later, prizes were given away to the winners.