Students of Rathinam College of Arts and Science and Environment Conservation Group (ECG), a Non-Government Organisation working on wildlife and nature conservation, organised a street play to stress the need to protect tigers in the wild, as part of International Tiger Day observance.
It was organised at Car-Free Sundays on NSR Road here on Sunday. Students also performed a tiger dance to the popular number from the Tamil movie Aboorva Sagotharargal . A booklet titled ‘Why Save Tigers?’ was distributed to the public. Children got tiger paintings on their face.
“Presence of a tiger is the sign of a healthy forest,” said ECG founder R. Mohammed Saleem. He said that globally there were nine species of tigers and that three of them were already extinct. In China, tigers were only available under captivity.
“With 2,226 tigers in the wild in India, the country has 50 per cent of the wild tigers on earth,” he said. This year, the country has lost 59 tigers. According to him, poaching, revenge killing by farmers whose cattle became prey to the big cats and deteriorating forest cover are reasons for the shrinking tiger population.
Other events of the day were a skit on ‘Crime against Women’ by students of GRD College of Arts and Science, a blind fold act and bicycle riding by magician Vignesh Prabhu to create awareness on eye donation and mimicry. Students of CMS College enthralled the audience with their Silambam performance. Choco Garden had distributed cookies, biscuits and chocolates free of cost to children at the Car-Free Sundays. Car-Free Sundays is an initiative of The Hindu in association with the Coimbatore Corporation and the City Traffic Police. Mark 1 Events is the Event Manager and Radio City is the Radio partner. The three hour-long event recorded by 91.1 Radio City FM on Friday.
Those interested in taking part and those who want to have events at Car-Free Sundays can contact Madhan of Mark 1 Events at 9715063000.
