Hyderabad: The Telangana state government has banned use of Chinese manja for kite-flying during Sankranti.
Violators will face arrest and a maximum jail term of six months, besides being punished for endangering the life and safety of others.
The government directed forest, police and commercial taxes departments to take extensive inspection of major markets/shops till Sankranti to check stocking, sale and use of Chinese manja.
With only a day left for Sankranti on January 15, special teams have been formed for the purpose.
Kite flying takes its toll on birds during Sankranti, especially on pigeons, that often get trapped or sometimes their wings get cut getting entangled in the manja. The government issued orders to this effect on Wednesday.
Enforce ban on chinese manja: CM
The TS government, under Section 5 of the Environment (Prote-ction) Act, 1986 imposed a complete ban on procuring, stocking, selling and using Chinese manja or other synthetic (non-biodegradable) threads coated with glass or other material. The government issued orders on this on Wednesday.
Minister for environment and forests Jogu Ramanna said there has been a long pending demand for ban on Chinese manja especially from environmentalists and bird lovers and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has directed the environment department to enforce the ban from this Sankranti.
“The Union ministry of environment had written to all states in September 2014 alerting the governments about the threat posed to birds like vultures, kites, owls, pigeons by the use of Chinese manja made of nylon and coated with crushed glass and asked states to check its usage. There are instances of manja killing people too,” he said. The minister added that Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan had imposed the ban last year. He said the ban was imposed conserve wild life and safety of human beings.
“It was also brought to the notice of the government that the use of manja was causing adverse affect on soil, waterways due to its non biodegradable nature apart from causing grievous injury to animals and human beings and causing problem for transmission lines and other communication devices and traffic movement,” Mr Jogu Ramanna said.
The government directed all departments concerned and organisations to take immediate necessary action to sensitise people against using manja and make them aware to use eco-friendly manja which are biodegradable and not harmful to animals and human beings.
