Tragedy I Before the Festival starts.
The festival that was meant to have celebrations of harvest and bliss has become a nightmare to many families in Indore and Jaipur. There is a lot of colorful kites in the sky, the strings attached to them have turned into silent killers on the roads. On Sunday evening, a 45 year old man by the name, Raghuveer Dhakad, died in Indore as a result of a lethal kite string. He was riding his motorbike, when the sharp thread cut his throat just before the Khajrana region.
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The incident has rocked the city with the residents making preparations towards the main festival day. Raghuveer was a tile contractor who was coming home after working and the tragedy struck him without much notice. Although the passersby rushed him to a nearby hospital, he will not survive the serious injury on his neck. This is not a case in point and reports about such injuries are flooding in various regions of the city. Very soon after this death, two other youths were taken to hospitals with serious cuts on their neck and faces.
The sale of illegal kite strings has also been intensified as the police in indore have since made a crackdown on it. These strings can be commonly known as Chinese Manjha though locally these are made of synthetic materials. The government has started search missions in such markets as Malhargunj in order to confiscate the prohibited products. The sellers are however underground hence the police have a hard time to fully halt the supply. Competitive kite flyers have a high demand of these sharp strings despite the fatalities that are associated with the use of these strings.
The same can be said in Jaipur where the city is preparing to host its largest kite-flying festival of the year. Jaipur Metro Rail Corporation has given a stern warning to people not to fly kites along the railways of the metro. They have recorded cases where metal-coated strings have led to interference of the high-voltage power lines. The festival is set to flood the hospitals within the Pink City with trauma cases. The government has installed more patrol units on the streets to seize the hazardous spools.
The Poisonous Formula of artificial Strings.
The main cause of such fatal accidents is the substance on which the manjha that is prohibited is produced. Chinese manjha is composed of mono-filament fishing line, unlike the traditional cotton strings, which are easy to break when they hit something. It is painted with a blend of glue and broken glass to render it very sharp and strong. This enables this piece of the composition to slice through other kite strings effortlessly in aerial duels. Regrettably, it has the power to slice a horror through human flesh and muscle as though it were a blade.
The impact is devastating when a biker rides into a hanging string at the average speed. The synthetic thread does not snap rather, it acts as a saw blade on the body of the rider. Even before the victims can even react to the invisible threat, most of them experience deep lacerations on their throats or faces. The line can be either clear, or coloured in a manner that cannot be easily noticed on the sunlight. This invisibility makes it almost impossible to the commuters to escape the trap until it is too late.
Environmental experts have raised the issue that the material is not biodegradable and remains in the environment over the years. It gets caught up in trees, power lines, and bridges and causes irreversible dangers to all. The strings that are not removed even after the festival are still continuing to play accidents even after months. When covered with metallic materials, the nylon substance is also an electricity conductor. This has resulted in a number of instances where children attempt to pull kites out of power grids resulting in electrocutions.
The physicians who treat the victims state that the wounds are deep and on occasions, they involve arteries that are critical. The cuts are clean and more deep, than those inflicted by ordinary items and thus difficult to sew. The vocal cords or the wind pipe is often damaged permanently in most instances. The medical fraternity has been calling on a complete ban on the manufacture of this material over the years. According to them, recreational value of kite flying is not worth the lives of humans and permanent disabilities.
Urban Wildlife and Birds Crisis.
The loss of human life is just a constituent of the tragedy that these lethal strings inflict. A large number of thousands of birds are killed by Chinese manjha annually during kite-flying season. The Jaipur and Indore sky becomes a trap to the pigeons, eagles and owls. In January, the injured avian patients flood the rescue centers and the bird hospitals. The crisp strings pierce through their wings so that they are sometimes incapable of flying again.
The Charity Bird Hospital, which is known in Jaipur, even has special camps that are established only to handle manjha victims. Volunteers go throughout the city picking up injured birds that have fallen in the sky. The wounds are also usually gruesome as the wings are cut off or the legs remain off as a result of hanging threads. By the time medical help is administered many of the birds have either died of shock, or due to dehydration. The synthetic string is very strong such that once they are caught in the nets they cannot escape.
This has a great effect on the ecosystem since even predatory birds such as kites and vultures are not exempt. These birds play a very vital role in maintaining the city clean, but they are being depleted by such accidents. Animal rightists have been objecting to the sale of glass-coated strings. They encourage human beings to wear plain cotton threads that are safe to humans and animals. The usage of the prohibited string is still rife in most of the neighborhoods despite the awareness campaigns.
Local people have attempted engaging the services of NGOs by asking them to patrol the high density of birds. They have long poles whereby they are used to pull out the strangled strings off trees and telephone wires. The abundance of trash produced by the festival however makes it an impractical challenge. The strings are still in high trees several years later still catching birds even after the festival. It is a massacre without noise that is carried out over the heads of the partying people.
