Strings that Kill

In recent months during the COVID pandemic, amongst other lifestyle changes, people have had to slow down from the fast-paced lifestyle we were used to before. People have found themselves with more free time on their hands than they know what to do with, especially with the options being limited due to restricted human interaction. This led to many of us reacquainting with long lost hobbies, such as cooking or learning languages. One of these hobbies appears to be kite flying.

Bengaluru has seen an increase in kite flying activity in the past few months This has led to an increase in the use of glass-coated Manja thread, which threatens the lives of several birds that call this city their home.

Contrary to popular belief, Chinese Manja is not a thread that is sourced from China. In fact, this thread is manufactured within the city itself. While traditional Manja consists of a pure cotton thread coated with finely powdered glass, Chinese Manja utilizes nylon or synthetic threads. The glass coating is said to make the thread sharp, thus allowing it to cut the threads of other kite flyers, adding a cutting edge to the competitive nature of kite flying.

The National Green Tribunal banned the storage, sale, and use of Manja in 2017, followed by several state governments including Karnataka making it punishable offenses under Section 15 of the Environment Protection Act (EPA), 1986.

In spite of these restrictions, the sale of Manja has not been deterred, possibly due to poor awareness and implementation of the ban. Several distributors circumvent the ban by marketing the product for industrial usage and other purposes that do not involve kite flying. Yet, this deadly thread continues to be used to fly kites, resulting in several injuries and deaths of not only birds but humans and other animals as well.

PfA reported 102 cases of bird injuries in 2019 and 128 cases in 2020 by the month of October alone. Of these, a total of 89 cases reported were regarding the Black Kite, a species common to Indian urban ecosystems. It has become increasingly clear that the cut-throat sport of kite flying has cost the lives of many Kites.








We may all remember as children, being routinely excited for the weeks in January when the winds would be best suited for kite flying. This often encompassed the harvest festival of Sankranti. Among delicacies such as sweet and kara pongal, many of us would look forward to going out to a lawn or to the terrace to participate in the tradition of kite flying. The strong yet steady breeze at that time of year made it easy to lift off the deceptively simple-looking and colorful paper constructions.

Yet, the jubilant fervor of the festival season is, however, always accompanied by a bleak flurry of articles in the newspaper about increasing death tolls among birds. Our soaring spirits are being uplifted at the sharp cost of the plummeting spirits of innocent creatures. It was not until reports of humans suffering severe injuries due to the killer Manja thread started surfacing, did people begin to take notice.

This is the case with many among the blissfully unaware Indian youth, who make up a significant portion of kite flyers and yet remain blissfully unaware of the consequences of their actions, aided by their indulgent parents who want their children to have the best shot at winning a seemingly harmless game in this cut-throat world we live in. Yet, just like many of us today who have grown to realize the horrors that befall living beings as a result of human activities, educating our youth is the only way to attenuate these consequences. With greater awareness, there is hope that we will see a decline in the number of lives that are forfeited in this dangerous game.