It’s that time of the year when colours are added to the sky that makes it beautiful and also deadly.
Yes, it’s time for the kite festival that is responsible for injuring hundreds of birds. Despite a ban on the sale of Chinese manja, a glass-coated thread in 2009, it continues to be sold at most kite shops. This glass- or metal-coated string is used during kite-flying competitions to cut through the opponent’s string.
Secretary of Bombay Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals JC Khanna appeals to people to avoid participating in kite-flying competitions. “This manja is so sharp and strong that even people using them put bandages on their fingers to avoid cuts. Just imagine how birds, especially pigeons, get slashed by this string. We send out ambulances to major kite-flying places like Girgaum chowpatty, where you find many injured birds. We get around 150 pigeons and 50 other birds on an average, during this time,” he said.
In many cases, stray pieces of strings lying on the road have injured motorists too. According to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ report on manja, there have been numerous cases in Gujarat, Nagpur and in Toronto where the manja string has cut into the skin deep to the bone, sometimes fatally.
Chinese manja usually comes into the market from Gujarat, Delhi and Hyderabad and is priced between Rs100 and Rs1,000 depending on its length and brand. It is still sold in most kite shops, sometimes behind the counter.
So, if you spot anyone using glass-coated manja, you can alert the local police station.
