Cheap but claiming lives: Banned Chinese manjha keeps killing edge

Lives hang by a thread as the so-called Chinese manjha spares neither man nor animal, flying high on kite fliers' competitive spirit and traders' pursuit of profit

Three years ago, Monika Sharma and her sister Sneha lost their brother on the day of Raksha Bandhan, the festival that celebrates the bond between brothers and sisters.

That day, their older brother Manav, a civil engineer, was driving a scooty from their home in Budh Vihar to their aunt’s house in Hari Nagar. Monika and Sneha were riding pillion. The kite flying season, which peaks on Independence Day, had set in and the manjha of a stray kite got entwined around Manav’s neck.

It was synthetic manjha, made of glass-coated monofilament fishing lines. It is meant to give kite fliers the edge while jousting with others in competitions. It was sharp enough to kill Manav on the spot.

“Raksha Bandhan is now a day of mourning for us,” says Monika.

The banned and the bountiful
 

The synthetic manjha has introduced days of mourning in the lives of many, killing and injuring people and animals, despite being banned. On Thursday, Vipin Kumar, a 35-year-old father of three, was crossing the Shastri Park flyover on his scooter when a stray strand of the synthetic manjha, called Chinese manjha in the kite community’s lingo, slit his throat. He bled to death on the spot as his wife and daughter, who had been riding pillion, watched in horror. The thread was so strong it injured Kumar’s hands as he struggled with it. Kumar is at least the fourth death reported this year due to the manjha.

Photo: Nitin Kumar

Sanser Pal Singh, who had filed a Public Interest Litigation in the Delhi High Court seeking a ban on the kite industry, says the number of accidents is higher than what gets reported. According to an RTI reply, the Delhi Police said it did not have a separate record of such incidents. However, according to media reports, more than 100 incidents take place every year in Delhi alone.

“Reports are filed only when someone dies. Nobody counts the injured,” says Singh. He lost a finger to the synthetic manjha in 2006.

The killer thread is made in India but called Chinese because nearly all of its main ingredient, a synthetic polymer called polypropylene, comes from China. It is also called Chinese for being much cheaper. At Rs. 250 to Rs. 350 for a 2,700 metre length, it costs less than half of the conventional cotton manjha, which also snaps more easily. But, despite being cheaper, the synthetic variety yields a higher profit margin for its vendors: 50 per cent, compared to 20-25 per cent for the cotton manjha.

Its attractiveness to kite fliers lies in its durability and a sharp cutting edge – the very attributes that cause the deaths and injuries. The National Green Tribunal banned the manufacture, distribution, and sale of all nylon or synthetic manjha in 2017. The matter came to the NGT in the wake of several PILs filed by NGOs, environmentalists, and survivors of the Chinese manjha due to its non-biodegradable and killer properties. The Delhi High Court, while dismissing Singh’s PIL, upheld the NGT’s order and directed the Delhi government to ensure strict compliance with it.

However, Business Standard found avenues to procure it without much difficulty in and around the corners of the National Capital Region. At first, manjha dealers deny having any of the so-called Chinese variety. But, once they ascertain that the person trying to buy it is not a police informer, are ever willing it fetch it from the innards of their shops or from their homes.

“With frequent inspections by the police, wholesalers and retailers have started keeping the Chinese manjha at their residence or other places and bring it out based on orders,” says a dealer who does not want to be named.

Delhi Police data shows 141 cases registered for illegally selling Chinese manjha this year, 137 people arrested, and 14,160 manjha rolls seized.

“In the past one month, we have seized 1,300 rolls of the Chinese manjha,” said Abhinendra Singh, Station House Officer, Hauz Qazi, as he pauses to direct his sub-inspector to initiate the investigation of the two bags of Chinese manjha seized with the help of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

A PETA member present at the police station said: “Not only humans but thousands of animals and birds also die due to the Chinese manjha."

Usha Rangnani, Deputy Commissioner of Police, North West Delhi, and her team recently seized 11,760 rolls of the manjha. “We found that it was supplied from Gujarat. We are keeping a close eye on manjha sales,” said Rangnani.

According to Police sources, the Chinese manjha also comes from Uttar Pradesh’s “manjha city”, Bareilly, in addition to Madhya Pradesh and the National Capital Region itself.

Photo: Nitin Kumar

An FIR going nowhere
 

According to traders, the kite industry in India is worth more than Rs 2,000 crore and supports 500,000 livelihoods. The kite manufacturing hub in Gujarat alone is worth more than Rs 700 crore and employs 150,000 people.

Naeem Khan, a kite trader, who has stopped selling manjhas, says most of the buyers of the Chinese manjha are youngsters in the 10-35 age bracket. “Ninety per cent of the buyers are youngsters who want it for the kite flying competitions,” he says.

Meanwhile, for Monika and Sneha, there is no closure. It seems no one killed their brother.

“The police registered the First Information Report, but said they cannot charge anybody because when that thread slit my brother's throat, it did not belong to anybody as it had been cut already,” says Monika.