Falcon caught in manjha rescued in Okhla, police help to sought fight menace

A Eurasian Hobby, a small slender falcon, was rescued by birders at Okhla bird sanctuary on Thursday morning after it was spotted entangled in a sharp manjha (kite string)

A Eurasian Hobby, a small slender falcon, was rescued by birders at Okhla bird sanctuary on Thursday morning after it was spotted entangled in a sharp manjha (kite string).

Falcon caught in manjha rescued in Okhla, police help to sought fight menace

Birders, along with a forest official, rushed the bird to an animal rescue centre. The bird was later released in Okhla bird sanctuary after receiving necessary treatment.

“We saw the Hobby struggling to free itself at the other side of the bridge in Okhla bird sanctuary around 7am. Though we removed the manjha, the bird did not fly as it was injured. A fellow birder, Dr Diwakar Rao, volunteered and took the bird to a wildlife rescue centre nearby, along with a forest official. The bird was saved but the problem of manjha persists,” said Jaswinder Singh Waraich, a Noida-based birder.

This is not the first such incident where a bird was stuck and or injured by a manjha, said the birders.

“Just about ten days ago, we untangled another Hobby, which was stuck in manjha and was hanging by a tree. It is a very common sight here. We often remove as much as manjha as we can and also request the forest department to do so,” said Rohit Sharma, another birder based in Noida who helped rescue the bird.

“There are several cases of bird injuries, primarily due to nylon manjha. It is referred as Chinese manjha but is locally manufactured. Today, the Eurasian hobby brought to us was unwinded from the manjha but was stressed and had mudded wings. It was later released after a thorough cleanup,” said Muhammad Soud, who runs an NGO ‘Wildlife Rescue’ in Delhi’s Wazirabad.

A small but graceful falcon that performs a fast flight in pursuit of flying prey, the Eurasian Hobby is about 33cm in length. One of the rare winter visitor, the Eurasian Hobby is a passage migrant and comes to this region for about a month or a few weeks.

Meanwhile, an official from the forest department said manjha is a menace for the sanctuary. Many such kite strings are found in the sanctuary due to the kites that fall here from neighbouring residential areas such as Jamia Nagar.

“Manjha, especially Chinese manjha, is a menace as it makes its way to the sanctuary and does not decay quickly. We are writing an official letter to the police stations of the concerned areas to check and curb the sale of Chinese manjha in their areas as it is a threat to the birds in the sanctuary,” said P K Srivastava, divisional forest officer, Gautam Budh Nagar.