Once a playtime activity, kite-flying these days has become a matter of grave concern. Every year, many people die due to injuries inflicted by kite strings, known locally as manja.
Kite-fliers have been known to coat these strings with crushed glass or other similarly hard-edged substances to be able to cut down other kites in contests on Makar Sankranti or Independence Day, especially in the National Capital Region as well as in Gujarat. And as we near Independence Day, the threat of manja raises its head once more.
The injuries and casualties aren’t limited to humans but also extend to birds that suffer deep, and often fatal, lacerations after getting entangled in manja strings on trees and telephone poles. Because these strings are not discarded properly but are left suspended on various structures, their threats continue even after the occasion.
Indeed, this is why the emergency rescue network of the Wildlife Trust of India considers kite-flying to be a human-made disaster.
In October 2018, 26-year-old Krupali Nikam was killed after inadvertently driving her bike into stray nylon manja in Pune. In a similar incident on Makar Sankranti in January this year, 29-year-old Gitesh Patare was killed in Mumbai trying to duck out of the way of a manja string hanging over the road. In April, an 18-year-old boy in North Delhi was killed after he ran into a nearly invisible length of manja that cut his windpipe. These are only three examples of a common story in many parts of the country.
Similarly, in Ahmedabad alone, an animal welfare NGO reported attending to 2,394 injured birds in late-2016, of which 490 succumbed to their injuries – all due to manja-related mishaps. In January this year, around 4,500 birds were reportedly injured within two days of the festival in Gujarat. These strings also wreak havoc when they are discarded into water bodies, where they can get in the way of fish, swimmers and scuba-divers.
Over the years, motorists have developed different ways to protect themselves: a U-shaped aluminium frame fitted on the motorbike visor; a neck-belt made of nylon with a velcro padding on one side; some simply wear cervical belts to shield the neck. In Ahmedabad, an NGO installs coils of copper wires on overbridges to prevent kite strings from descending onto walkways. Earlier this year, the Kolkata traffic police proposed to hoist nets, among other measures, on the Maa flyover to keep strings away from motorists.
Because the coating on the string is often abrasive, manja is known to be able to damage power lines and cause blackouts. According to BSES, the company that manages Delhi’s power supply, a single incident involving a kite near an electrical establishment can affect up to 10,000 customers. So every year, before kite-flying events, power companies advise people to not fly kites around power lines.
In 2012, the Animal Welfare Board of India, then an advisory body of the Union environment ministry and now under the animal husbandry ministry, advised the government to ban glass-coated manja. The next year, the board issued a letter to all states and UTs requesting that they ban the sale and use of abrasive manja, and the environment ministry instructed the chief secretaries of all states and UTs to do the same thing in 2014. (The Indian Medical Association reiterated this request in 2018.)
Then, in December 2016, the National Green Tribunal imposed an interim ban on all forms of manja but subsequently excluded the term “glass-coated”, leaving nylon, plastic, etc. threads banned across the country.
The Delhi government went a step ahead in January 2017 and issued a notification banning all forms of manja and allowed kites to be flown only with plain cotton threads. However, an avian medical centre treated 700 birds for manja-inflicted injuries on Independence Day that year, including many of the protected species.
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Two years since, the lives of our birds as well as people continue to be at risk. The law is effective only when imbibed in spirit. At the implementation level, the Delhi government notification authorises officers of rank sub-inspector or higher to act against offending buyers and sellers. According to the directions, issued under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, offenders are liable to be punishable with up to five years in jail and/or a fine of up to Rs 1 lakh.
Article 48A of the Constitution states that “the state shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country.” Article 51A (g) of the Constitution states that “to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife, and to have compassion for living creatures”. Additionally, the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, prohibits causing pain and suffering among animals.
No entertainment sport is worth the death of life, whether human or non-human. But if kite-flying has to go back to being a leisure activity, another state government or UT has to follow Delhi’s lead and exterminate the manja menace.
Sakshi Rathi holds an LLM in human rights and is currently a consultant for PeTA, India, with extensive knowledge and experience on animal rights issues. She tweets at @rathisakshi1. The views expressed in this article are personal.