The Discovery Kids and WWF-India’s Wild Wisdom Quiz 2015 culminated with the national finals being held at the WWF-India auditorium. The Wild Wisdom Quiz is Asia’s largest and India’s only wildlife quiz at the national level. It had a successful run in its 8th edition this year with more than 26,000 registrations pan-India in the Junior and Middle School categories.  The quiz was also supported by the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

The City levels of the quiz were held in 15 cities in August and September.  15 teams from 15 cities battled it out for the grand title at WWF-India’s Auditorium at the elimination round, with five teams moving onto the national finals.

P. Shriman  and R Avnish from Vidya Niketan Public School, Coimbatore established their prowess at the quiz and emerged winners, followed by S Gokul Sai and T Pavan from Teja Vidyalaya, Hyderabad as the first runners up and Sparsh Jandial and Sajjal Rana from The Heritage School, Jammu and Kashmir, bagging the second runner up spot. The three teams will now head for a 3 day adventure to Tirthan River Valley and the Great Himalayan National Park to experience nature first-hand, supported by Chrysalid Outdoors, the prize partner for this trip.

Bollywood Actor Arjun Kapoor conducted the quiz and added much glamour to the event.  He also obliged the kids with selfies once the quiz was over. He said, “It is amazing to witness the knowledge that these students have about our biodiversity. Some of the greatest scientists and conservationists of India started on their conservation journeys with WWF as Volunteers or Nature Club members. We need kids like these to be agents of change and help bring about a future where humans live in harmony with nature.”

Rahul Johri, Executive Vice President & General Manager – South Asia, Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific said, “Discovery Kids offers a differentiated content through a balanced mix of learning and entertainment to millions of children in India.  Wild Wisdom Quiz extends Discovery Kids’ proposition and creates a platform to provide a deeper understanding of nature and wildlife amongst the kids.”

Secretary General and CEO of WWF-India, Mr. Ravi Singh said, ‘’ We are extremely proud of all the students who have qualified for the finals. The amount of knowledge they possess about nature and their surroundings gives us hope for a better future. It is children such as these whom we envision to be future conservationists. The Wild Wisdom Quiz is an initiative towards sensitizing and bringing about awareness in students and other groups about flora, fauna and the various issues in conservation that are so vital to our knowledge and our world.”

500 schools participated in the quiz all across the country. The theme for this year’s quiz was Secrets of the Soil based on the UN’s Declaration of 2015 as the Year of the Soil. The quiz aims to provide students a unique opportunity to delve deeper into the wildlife of this country, build their interest towards the rich natural legacy and inspire them to work towards its conservation. This year it highlighted the importance of soil as one of the vital resources for life on earth.