Mumbai Police bans nylon manja ahead of Makar Sankranti, use of it would be punishable offence

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Mumbai Police on Friday issued an order banning the use of nylon manja in the city ahead of the kite flying festival Makar Sankranti.

The order was issued by Vishal Thakur, DCP, Operations, Mumbai Police.

Every year during the kite flying festival, injury is caused to people and birds on account of pucca thread made out of plastic or similar synthetic material commonly known as Nylon Manja, the order said. These injuries many times turn out fatal causing death to people and birds. "...and it is, therefore, desirable to protect people and birds from the fatal effects of the kite flying thread made out of nylon or plastic or synthetic thread," the order stated.

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All these threads, the order said, along with the kites remain on the land, and because of the very long life of the plastic materials which are non-biodegradable in nature, they can cause damage to the ecology once they touch the soil. These threads continue to cause problems such as blockage of sewer lines, drainage lines, natural waterways such as rivers, streams, adverse effects on soil and waterways and cattle population caused by cutting or falling of such threads, suffocation of cows and other animals who ingest food items along with such nylon/plastic materials, and thus the impact of such plastic materials used for making threads is many and varied.

A police official said, "it was a routine order."

The order further said, extensive use of such synthetic thread which are non bio-degradable, often result in flash-over on the power lines and substations, which may cause power interruptions to consumers, straining and damaging of electrical assets, cause accidents, injuries to wildlife and loss of life, damage to the environment and therefore it is necessary to prevent the use of such nylon threads for kite flying.

"It is desirable to protect birds that are getting extinct day by day and classified as rare and endangered species and during the 'Makar Sankranti' kite festival, kite flying takes place in a large scale all over Mumbai.

For the period of 30 days i.e from January 12, 2023, to February 10, 2023, a ban on the use, sale, and storage of the pucca threads commonly known as nylon manjha made of the plastic or any such synthetic material which is likely to cause grievous injury to the birds as well as to human beings, especially during the festivals where kite flying is done in the jurisdiction of Mumbai Police Commissionerate."

This order shall remain in force with effect from 00.01 hrs of 12/01/2023 till 24.00 hrs of 10/02/2023 unless withdrawn earlier and any person contravening this order shall be punishable under Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code. 1860, the order said.