Play Gives New Lease Of Life To Whale Sharks

October 31, 2004

Release from: Indian News

A street play currently being performed among Gujarat's fishermen has given a boost to efforts by environmentalists to save the whale shark, the world's biggest fish and one of the gentlest creatures of the sea.

The Gujarati play "Whali Re Whali Whale Shark Amari" or "Dear O Dear Our Whale Shark" has been performed in the area between Okha port in Saurashtra to the union territory of Diu, where these giant fish come to breed during April-July.

Fishermen of Porbandar, 400 km from here, recently released a whale shark from their nets after watching the play in which whale shark is depicted as a pregnant daughter visiting her father's home for the safe delivery of her child.

"Earlier, the fishermen of Saurashtra would call a whale shark a 'barrel' and kill it. Now after watching the play, they know the shark as 'dear' and treat it as a daughter visiting them," playwright-director Manish Patadia, the man behind the play, told IANS.

Kamlesh Chamadia, owner of K.R. Sea Food Launch that had netted the whale shark off the Porbandar coast last week, admitted: "It was my first experience of watching the shark out in the sea. I thought it was a big catch and netted it.

"Later when we dragged her near the shore, my wife and the wives of other fishermen told us about the play that we had watched some weeks ago.

"Our wives reminded us that it (the whale shark) was like our daughter, and we released the giant back into the waters."

The play takes inspiration from religious leader Morari Bapu's statement in which he equated the whale shark with a daughter seeking shelter from her father.

Bapu has become the brand ambassador for a campaign to save the whale shark spearheaded by the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) and the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

Gujarat Heavy Chemicals Limited and Tata Chemicals Limited, two major corporate houses with units in Gujarat, are supporting the campaign.

"The people need to be told that 'prem' (love) and karuna' (compassion) towards 'jeev' (animals) is also dharma. I have learnt that these creatures come to the Gujarat coast to breed," Morari Bapu had said earlier this year.

"So, the whale shark can be likened to the daughter coming home to give birth to her child and then, it becomes our responsibility to take care of her."

According to Patadia: "My play tells the tale of 'Whali' or 'dear' as a daughter of Gujarat returning home to give birth to her child and the threat she faces of being killed.

"To symbolise this, we developed the character of 'Whali' as the pregnant daughter of a fisherman who suffers misfortune because he kills a whale shark.

"The turning point in the play is when the daughter comes to know that her fisherman father is going to the sea to hunt whale sharks and confronts him with a question: 'Is the whale shark not like your daughter who comes to you for safety?'

"This transforms the fisherman's heart and he vows never to kill a whale shark again," said Patadia, who plays the role of the fisherman in the play.

A 40-foot life-size inflatable model of the whale shark has been put up by WTI as the backdrop for the play.

The play was staged last week in Dwarka, the mythical kingdom of Hindu god Krishna, 400 km from here. The audience, including Morari Bapu, was in tears by the time the play ended.

The whale shark is viewed as a major attraction for tourism in Gujarat, after the Asiatic lions that are found in the Gir forest of Saurashtra.

According to Reef Watch Marine Conservation Society of India, 1,000 whale sharks visit the coast of Gujarat every year, making it the largest habitat of the fish in the world.

"Australia has spotted only 250 to 400 whale sharks, whereas Gujarat has got 1,000 of them as visitors every year," said Sarang Kulkarni, founder of the society.