<p>Flying kites during the Indian festival of Makar Sankranti has been an age-old tradition. This pastime has increased in popularity tremendously, and even taken a competitive turn in the past few decades. In recent years, the use of kite-flying threads has evolved from traditional cotton threads to nylon, or synthetic string, popularly called Chinese manjha or manja.</p>
<p>During these kite-flying events, the kite flyers seek strings that are made of a strong thread, so that the strings of other kites can be cut easily when engaged in a mid-air duel. When the string of a kite is severed midway, it drops down along with the kite, and gets intertwined in the branches of trees, on tall buildings, and other tall man-made structures.</p>
<p>During the Makar Sankranti kite-flying season, in cities like Jaipur in Rajasthan, and Ahmedabad in Gujarat, the sky is filled with kites — almost a million or more kites are known to dot the sky at the same time — each trying to joust with neighbouring kites. Once a rival’s kite is severed, it gets wind-blown and drifts along with the dangling manja and settles or gets caught on tall trees or tall protruding manmade structures like electricity or telegraph poles, or terraces of buildings, etc.</p>
<p>Being practically invisible, these suspended strings prove traps for birds and sometimes animals, who struggle to break free and get further injured, may get maimed, or even die, if not rescued in time. Not to mention the many cases where children get electrocuted accidentally as their manja touches an electricity live wire, or motorcycle riders whose neck/windpipe gets slashed by a nylon manja dangling across a busy street, unseen because of its thinness but lethal due to its composition. A cotton manja would at least snap under pressure or repeated tugging, but the nylon ‘Chinese’ manja persists and outlasts humans and animals by centuries.</p>
<p>Ecologist and conservationist Mohammad Dilawar, the President of Nature Forever Society, who initiated the first World Sparrow Day in 2009 (today it is celebrated in more than 30 countries across the World) spoke to ABP about how there is a serious need for legislation to moderate and monitor the nylon manjha/manja manufacture, supply, and use so that birds do not have to pay with their lives for human entertainment and recreation.<br /><br /><em>Excerpts from what Mohammad Dilawar told ABP Love News:</em></p>
<p><strong>ABP:</strong> Why are there so many accidents and deaths of humans, birds, animals around Makara Sankranti day due to Manjha cuts or entanglements?</p>
<p><strong>Mohammad Dilawar:</strong> This is a recent phenomenon which has been aggravated due to the use of Nylon or Chinese Manja (Trade name) in India which is made of material normally used in a fishing line. In the past when the cotton manja was used such fatalities were unheard of. The nylon has a very high tensile strength and does not snap the way a cotton manja does. This quality of it renders<br />it dangerous for humans and birds alike.</p>
<p><strong>ABP:</strong> Does the majha menace end with Sankranti kite flying season every year?</p>
<p><strong>Mohammad Dilawar:</strong> No, it does not. The nylon doesn’t decompose unlike the cotton manja and continues to stay in the environment for centuries to come. As scientifically <a href=”https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275973631_Kite_flying_Effect_of_Chinese_manja_on_birds_in_Bangalore_India” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>proven in our research</a> of impact of Chinese or nylon manja, it continues to kill birds, small wildlife<br />across the year, and for years to come as it does not decompose.</p>
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<p><strong>ABP:</strong> Is the nylon manjha problem seen anywhere else in the world? What threads do competitive kite-fliers across the world use?</p>
<p><strong>Mohammad Dilawar:</strong> Such problems due to Nylon manja are also seen in Pakistan and also Afghanistan, two countries where competitive kite flying as in India is a rage and a tradition. <br /><br />However due to the sheer scale of population and lack of rules being implemented the problem are much higher in India.</p>
<p><strong>ABP:</strong> Why is India unable to end the nylon manjha menace even after so many years of awareness campaign?</p>
<p><strong>Mohammad Dilawar:</strong> Awareness alone doesn’t work India we also need to have very strong laws to implement this. As kite flying is a competitive sport In India the people who fly the kites don’t want their kites to be cut. For them it doesn’t matter what negative impact this nylon manja has on the ecosystem. Also, a lot of kite flyers are from a section of the society where literacy and education levels are low, and therefore there is little awareness or concern for what and how their actions are going impact others. For them the lives of birds matter close to nothing.</p>
<p>Also as kite flyers fly kite mainly from terraces and private places and no one can make out from a distance whether they are using cotton strings or nylon ones, it becomes difficult. Once the kite is cut it travels great distance from the flyer&#39;s place and its stray strings cause untold damage. But again, once the kite is cut from the flyer’s control, there is no way to prove whose kite it is and<br />where it came from.<br /><br /><strong>ABP:</strong> What is the Chinese manjha? Is it really from China? What is the threat from this kite-flying thread?</p>
<p><strong>Mohammad Dilawar:</strong> Chinese manja is the trade name of manja which is made of the same material from which fishing lines are made this are having very high tensile strength.</p>
<p><strong>ABP:</strong> What policy changes do you recommend to combat this sad and painful practice of nylon manjha forever?</p>
<p><strong>Mohammad Dilawar:</strong> Till now the government gets active only during the Sankranti or Kite flying season in various regions of the country. They mainly conduct raids on establishments of traders which are at the base of this ecosystem. The pyramid rises quite high and is never shown the strict side of the law. The Government should for a national task force in which agencies like CBI should be<br />involved as the entire process of making nylon manja happens pan India.</p>
<p>If the government follows the below mentioned protocol it will be able to control the menace in a matter or a few months.</p>
<p>1. Trace all Manufacturing units which are making Fishing lines and bring them under regulation that they can only manufacture and sale this lines to fishermen or people involved in trade related to fisheries.</p>
<p>2. If any supplier of raw material for making fishing lines or nylon string or any manufacturer making this is caught selling this material to manja makers he should be tried under serious laws not only connected to wildlife but also economic and IT related lawns.</p>
<p>3. All Manufacturers and Distributors and history sheeters who are previously caught in making manja should be brought under vigilance and anyone caught second time should be tried under stringent economic, IT and other laws. The GST certificates and all trade related certification of such people and their family members should be cancelled or brought under strict scrutiny.</p>
<p>4. Any seller, distributor, manufacturer or supplier of raw materials as well as user or anyone found in possession or use of Nylon manja should face minimum 10 years of rigorous imprisonment along with a very heavy economic penalty.</p>
<p>5. All history sheeters should be warned and hard core criminals should face ‘banishment from a locality’; A detailed investigation of all history sheeters and complete nexus should be studied and brought on record.</p>
<p>6. The possession, sale, manufacturing, distribution, trading and supply of Nylon manjha should be made a non-bailable offence.</p>
<p>Only if there is a strict compliance of such stringent rules, can the indiscriminate and dangerous use of nylon manja be stopped. A National Task Force is needed because it is likely that the manufacture of the nylon manja happens in one state, the distribution and retails sales in some other states, and final usage in yet another. Without a centralised task force working round the year, it will remain a<br />jurisdiction battle and the culprits will go scot free.</p>
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<p><em>The writer is a senior independent journalist</em></p>
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