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Kite flying…and birds dying: Understanding the connect + bird helplines in Mumbai, Baroda and Delhi

Credits: This article has been posted here thanks to the information circulated by Charu Shah through the Facebook Group ‘Awareness on  Kite Flying’, Neha Patel (from Baroda, Gujarat), Nilesh Bhanage (from PAWS Mumbai), Fauna Police (at Delhi) , Wildlife Rescue (at Delhi)

Every year, the festival of Makar Sankranti (falling this year on 14th January 2011) is celebrated with a lot of joy and cheer, but hardly few people know that this joy causes death to many innocent birds.

People use manja/kite string made of glass, so that the kites they fly don’t get cut easily and fly higher, but what they don’t realise is that the same threads responsible for killing a lot of birds every year while crippling others for life.
This glass manja (glass powder treated string or also called Chinese string/manja)gets entangled in the trees and cause death not only on that particular day, but for months after that.
The legs or wings of the birds that sit on those trees, have nests therein or fly past its branches get entangled in this manja, and stay there, sometimes hanging upside down for days …on end, bleeding, and dying a slow miserable death.The most common bird to fall prey to kite flying in the city of Delhi is ironically a raptor bird, known as Kite (to learn more about this, read this article till the end). 

Apart from regular birds like sparrows, pigeons, crows, some exotic birds, who have migrated from far off places across the world, also get entangled in the web of glass manjas and loose their lives.

Not to mention here that many humans also get their throats and fingers slit because of these manjas hanging lose all over the place.
So if possible, please celebrate the festival spreading cheer and not death! 

(Design Courtesy: Fauna POLICE)

Attached below are come contact numbers for bird rescue in Mumbai (Maharashtra) and Baroda (Gujarat).

All these numbers have been verified by Ahimsa in malad and by Charu Shah, so please forward this piece of information to all your contacts, and please try to save a life this year!

Please note that some of these people listed below may not have an ambulance service to come and take the injured bird, but YOU CAN (and should) definitely take an injured bird you spot to either of these people and request them to administer it medical treatment and take care of the bird until it is fit to fly again.

For injured birds in MUMBAI, please contact–
•Mr Jain (Borivali- takes care of injured birds,no pick up)- 28063705
Hiren Shah (Malad)- 9820271492
Ahimsa (Kandivali)- 288804195/ 9833962399
•D.K. (Malad/ Kandivali East)- 9820948506
•Jayesh (Malad/ Kandivali West)- 9702440194
•Rajesh Doshi (Goregaon/ Jogeshwari)- 9892465888
•Karuna (Parle)- 65151313/ 65141313/ 9819100100
•Manish Vora (Parle East)- 9819142001
•Nimit Vora (Parle East)- 9819133735
•Vimal Shah (Parle East)- 9821303057
•Sureshbhai (Parle West)- 26127035
•Sunil Shah (Santacruz/ Parle/ Andheri East)- 9821588894
•SPCA (Parel)- 24137518/ 24133598/ 24135285
•Manav Mandir (Worli Naka to Colaba)- 23080319
•WSD (Cuffe Parade to Mahim/ Sion)- 64222838
•Vardhaman Sanskar Dham (Ghatkopar/ Powai/ Vashi)- 65252573
•PAWS (Dombivali)- 25820571/ 9820161114/ 9869376238
•Thane SPCA (Thane)- 9322271966/ 32612344
•IDA (Deonar)- 32681418/ 9320056581
(Vashi)- 32681419 /9320056585
•Fire brigade- 101

More bird helpline numbers shared by Nilesh  Bhanage from PAWS–
PAWS Helpline – 9820161114 / 9920777536
Thane – Avinash Bhagat – 9892061899
Dombivli – Nilesh Bhanage – 9820161114
Kalyan – Samir Nevgi – 9930232710
Ulhasnagar – Neetu John – 8080208363

Bird Helpline Numbers in Vadodara (Gujarat) : 9377666964 , 9898693659 , 9925058137 , 9904716996

Why do so many Raptors get injured in Delhi because of kite strings?

 

Poster Courtesy: PAWS

 

 

 Delhi is one of the largest  producers of meat, as a result of which large amount of meat scrap gets dumped across various corners of the city in illegal slaughterhouses spread across the city. The extinction of Vultures acted as a boon for Black kites (Milvus migrans) and gradually, there was a rapid rise seen in the population of Black Kites.

In India, people love to fly paper kites with the help of sharp glass coated strings/Glass Manja. This string acts like a ‘naked sword’ in sky and generally cuts everything  which comes in its way whether it’s a bird or any human being. There have been many cases in which this ‘Manja’ has killed many human beings with fatal wounds on their throat.


We request you to kindly consider giving up kite flying or if you still love flying kites, fly them using a coton string, referred to as ‘saddi’  in Hindi .

For the glass string that gets tied on poles, tree branches also acts as an inevitable injury and death trap for birds of all species as they get entangled in them.

Once caught in these glass manjas, these birds are find it extremely difficult to break free and in the effort that they make to free themselves from these mesh of strings, they end up damaging their wings and other body parts, like damaging their toes.

If ever you spot an injured bird of prey like Kites, Eagles or any other non-vegetarian birds, please dial the following Helpline Numbers in Delhi – 9810029698, 9810129698,

—For all other kind of birds, like Crows, Pigeons, Owls etc.,contact : 9810639698, 986855222, 9212111116