200 Chennai Students Learn Ocean Conservation Through Games

School kids in Chennai just became the city's newest ocean defenders, and they learned by playing games.

The Environmentalist Foundation of India brought 200 students from 20 schools together at Victoria Public Hall on Thursday for a workshop that made marine conservation fun. Instead of lectures, the kids played interactive games that taught them about threats facing sea creatures and how pollution harms ocean habitats.

Founder Arun Krishnamurthy designed the five-hour session around gamification, turning serious topics like marine pollution and habitat destruction into engaging activities that stuck with students. The approach helped kids understand complex environmental challenges in ways that felt natural and exciting.

The workshop did more than teach facts. It encouraged each participating school to start its own ocean club where students can continue learning about how human activities impact marine life and what they can do to help.

The Greater Chennai Corporation and HCL Foundation partnered with EFI to host the event at the recently renovated Victoria Public Hall, showing how government and private organizations can work together for environmental education.

The Ripple Effect

This workshop is just the beginning of something bigger. Two more sessions are planned for Kovalam and Marina Beach, with a goal of training 1,000 student ocean advocates by March.

These young people will carry what they learned back to their families, friends, and communities. When kids understand why oceans matter and what threatens them, they become powerful messengers for change in their own homes and neighborhoods.

The ocean club model means this isn't a one-day event that gets forgotten. Students will have ongoing opportunities to deepen their knowledge and take action, creating a generation of Chennai residents who understand their connection to the sea.

A thousand young voices speaking up for ocean health can create waves of change that reach far beyond the classroom.