New Delhi: Two junior school kids have embarked on a project to save tigers, the national animal and a symbol of endangered wildlife. Adarsh and Shubham, both class 6 students, decided to save the big cat this summer, by launching a website.
Though there has not been much activity on the website, mostly because they have to depend on Shubham’s older cousin to help out with technicalities, both Adarsh and Shubham have been able create awareness about the tiger through word of mouth. Their note on the “about us” section on thundertigers.weebly.com is endearing because it is straight from the heart of two 10-year-olds: “As the tigers are endangered we the humans should protect them. The tiger looks like a big cat. It has a long tail. Its strong body is brownish with black stripes on it. Its padded feet have sharp claws. Its four teeth, two in the upper jaw and two in the lower jaw are sharper and stronger than the rest.”
Having done their deed by educating their parents, teachers and friends at school, the two friends are now doing a door-to-door campaign in their neighbourhood to collect funds to register a dotcom domain. So far, they have collected Rs 1700.
“We are thinking of purchasing a domain so that more people can access our website. Some people cannot visit our site and if we have a domain it can be accessed from all browsers. We are getting financial aid from our friends, neighbours and well-wishers to buy a domain,” says Shubham. It all began when Adarsh and Shubham saw an advertisement on TV. “We saw an advertisement on television on tigers and we learnt there are very few tigers in our country. We also read about this issue in newspapers and on the Internet,” Adarsh told PTI. Once the website is up search engine Google will give them Rs 7 per click which will go for the welfare of tigers. “Google will give us Rs 7 per click for website. We are trying to target teachers and friends so that more people click on our website,” he said. Adarsh and Shubham will donate the fund thus collected to the national parks of India. They have written to the President of India about their website.
With several projects focussing on protecting tigers, the big cat’s population has gone up from 1,114 in 2006 to 1,706 in 2011. The 20 per cent increase has been reported by National Tiger Conservation Authority. The boys have decided to pledge an hour a day after their homework for their website. (PTI)
