Hyderabad: The forest department has warned people against the use of synthetic glass-coated thread Chinese or nylon manja to fly kites during Sankranti.
Principal chief conservator of Forests P.K. Jha said the manja was killing birds. “If we find that the cable used by anyone has killed birds, the maximum sentence is seven years jail as per the Wildlife Act,” Mr Jha said.
He said there were several instances where the manja had injured birds. In incidents here and in Delhi, these threads had caused the death of motorists. The National Green Tribunal had ordered the ban of the manja in July 2017, but the state government had done so in 2016. Since then, the forest department has seized about 900 kg of the synthetic manja in areas like Dhoolpet and Secunderabad and booked 123 cases.
Mr Jha said those caught selling the Chinese manja would face jail of five years and Rs 1 lakh fine. He appealed to kite flyers’ associations to avoid the use of such manja.
The forest department has set up toll-free numbers 18004255364 and 04023231440 for people to lodge complaints regarding birds injured by manja or entangled in it.
“We receive calls for two months after the festival about birds being entangled in the manja or killed by the threads. Though we rush to the spot immediately on getting a call, we cannot save the birds always,” said forest department officer on special duty A. Shankaran.
