Karuna Abhiyan: Rajkot collector flags off 9 ambulances for birds injured by hitting kite strings

Briefing the media persons at the event, the collector said that with the help of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the state government will run Karuna Abhiyan for 11 days beginning from January 10.

“As many as 14,062 birds were injured across the state after hitting kites and 1096 of them died eventually. In Rajkot district, 2009 birds were injured last year. Thanks to Karuna Abhiyan, 95 per cent of them were saved but the five percent couldn’t be saved,” the collector said, while appealing people not to use synthetic or nylon strings, popularly called Chinese manja for flying kites and instead use traditional strings which are generally made of cotton yarn.

Babu said that police will take strict action against traders caught selling Chinese manja and Chinese tukkals (sky lanterns).

The collector said that 15 temporary bird rescue centres have been set up in Rajkot city and one each in 11 talukas of the district and appealed people to dial 1962 or 98984 99954 for calling Karuna ambulance in case they see any injured bird.

Besides, people can also report bird injuries via Rajkot district disaster control room No. 0281 2471573 as well as toll free No.1077.

Additionally, people will be able to get information of rescue centres by sending text message “Karuna” on WhatsApp No. 83200 02000 and clicking on https://bit.karunaabhiyan link that they will receive in response to the text message.

SKFT, the Rajkot-based NGO, runs animal helpline round the year and people can contact it by dialling toll-free No.1962.

“We have four ambulances which remain available round the year. We will add five more to that for Karuna Abhiyan,” Sanghani said, adding the animal husbandry department of the state government will also make five more ambulances available during the 11-day-long drive.

The Karuna Abhiyam comes when the tourism department of the state government is celebrating international kite festivals in various places.

When asked if there wasn’t a contraction in government policy as the tourism department promotes kite flying culture while forest and animal husbandry departments run parallel campaign to treat birds injured by kite strings, Sanghani said, “The problem lies not with people flying kites per say but the transformation in way Uttarayan is celebrated by people at large. Of late, the festival has transformed into a contest of cutting one-another’s kites. This has led to kite flyers searching for ever stronger kite strings. This in turn supports the Chinese manja market.”