Kite flyers, string sellers flout ban with impunity

Balwant Garg

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Tribune News Service

Faridkot, February 1

The ban on the sale of certain types of kite strings, including Chinese string, which is causing harm to humans, animals and birds, is being flouted with impunity.

Members of some organisations voluntarily on Saturday collected strings and burnt them. Some birds, injured with these banned strings, were also given first-aid treatment. The district police and the administration have arrested only four persons for selling the banned Chinese string so far.

Members of Society for Environment and Ecological Resources (SEER) said many strings available in the area were not being imported from China, but were manufactured in the state. “The thread, which is mainly used for industrial purposes, gives way to offenders for using it in kite flying practice and escape the law,” said the members.

In July 2017, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had called for a country-wide ban on Chinese string made of nylon or other synthetic material, coated with synthetic substance and non-biodegradable material. The banned string has not only resulted in injuries to birds, animals and human beings, but also caused fatal road accidents, read the NGT order.

Asking the state government to stop its sale, the NGT had described the Chinese string as one made up of synthetic material instead of cotton and had a coating of material that can cut the skin of animals and human beings. Such string is also a good conductor of electricity, resulting in many accidents as it gets tangled in high-tension electricity lines.

In January 2015, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had issued directions to the DGP to issue directions to all SHOs to immediately conduct raids against the sale, storage and purchase of such strings or any other such material being sold and used for kite flying.

Over the years, the police and the district administration have been giving prohibitory orders on the sale and storage of the string but no concrete and effective steps have been taken to check its sale and use, rue members of SEER.