This publication details the successful story of participatory conservation of Whale Shark (Rhincodon typus) in Gujarat lead by WTI.

The whale shark campaign is one of the stellar conservation stories that have come out of India in the past few years. To take a fish that was hunted and traded in the scores and was virtually unknown in the conservation community of India and in the short span of three years to transform it into a legally protected species whose hunting was a story of the past is remarkable. Equally remarkable is the fact that the fish has
achieved an iconic status as Vhali, the loved one in Gujarat with thousands of schoolchildren painting it, celebrating its arrival with plays and street drama, and with six towns on the western coast of India declaring it their city