Runners-up of the Volvo Adventure Competition, M. Nayantara and S. Jahwant, with Managing Director, Volvo India, Eric Leblanc (right) and Managing Director, Volvo Car India, Paul de Voijs, as they receive their air ticket to participate at the global event. It was difficult to believe that the young people making their presentations on stage were only from Class VIII. The professionalism and purpose with which they addressed the press on Thursday, on the other hand, made it less difficult to believe that they had been chosen as winners of the Volvo Adventure Competition 2008, held in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme. While a team from Bharat Mata School, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, won first place for its project on eliminating mosquito breeding grounds, S. Jahwant and M. Nayantara from S.B.O.A. School and Junior School, Chennai, came a close second for their project on traffic control. The two winning teams were chosen from 41 project entries made by students from across the country. Rishabh Tah of Bharat Mata was in the winning team last year as well and had the opportunity of participating at a global level in Sweden. This year, he is confident that the theme his team chose was unique and they stood a good chance of winning the global title. But, even if he does not win, he and his team have a lot to be proud of. Thanks to their efforts, their school neighbourhood is free from stagnant water, mosquitoes and litter. Jawant and Nayantara will only be visiting the global competition this year as observers. They have been working on their project for a year. They carefully tracked and calculated traffic trends in their school neighbourhood in Anna Nagar. They surveyed the area of traffic density and frequency of accidents. Their findings were enough to make people think. "We found that there were more vehicles than people in the area. We then spoke to everybody about what they would like to see. We promoted road safety values and used our school students to direct traffic better. In 2007, a year afterwards, their neighbourhood, according to their subsequent calculations, had a 60 per cent drop in fatalities and a 55 drop in accidents. Managing director, Volvo India, Eric Leblanc, said this was the 6th year the contest had been held. He talked about how the competition was a means to involve the stake holders in promoting Volvo's core values of safety and environmental protection. Coming together on the same platform, Managing Director, Volvo Car India, Paul de Voijs, said even though the company had been sold to Ford, it retained the environmental heritage of Volvo. "The kids' projects and efforts towards the creation of a better environment have been inspiring. One can never underestimate their creativity. I am indeed happy to see the youngsters' initiatives,' he said, reminding the teams that in 2006, a school from Madurai had bagged the international prize.