Nagpur: The National Green Tribunal's order of July 2017 banning the sale of nylon and synthetic manja has pushed its sale underground. If one is willing to shell out extra bucks, the deadly thread can be easily procured.
Posing as prospective customers, members of the Green Vigil Foundation along with TOI correspondent managed to obtain nylon manja from various markets in the city. Though initially the sellers claimed they did not have the 'Chinese' manja, after a little persuasion they took out the illegal stock which was not deliberately kept on display.
At Juni Shukrawari, which has one of the city's largest kite markets, sellers have put up 3-cord, 4-cord, 6-cord and 12-cord threads (the figures indicate the number of times the thread has been treated to make it sharp). Nylon manja has disappeared from the racks. This year, banners advertise a new variety of thread called 'Saudi manja'.
"We have stopped selling nylon manja as it is banned. You won't find it any of the shops," says the first shopkeeper.
However the NGO members insist on buying an "unbreakable thread" as they want to participate in a kite-flying competition. After they reject all the glass-coated cotton manjas and start walking out of the shop, the seller calls them back. "I have some stock of nylon manja but you will have to pay Rs100 for 50 meters," he said.
The shopkeeper then goes inside a small dingy room at the shop's end where nylon manja is stocked. Like him, most of the sellers in the market are clandestinely stocking synthetic manja. "Every shopkeeper has it but they are not selling openly. Most of the stock is being sold to known customers only," says another seller.
At Ram Nagar square, roadside kite sellers too are willing to sell nylon manja at high prices. While a spool of cotton thread was available for Rs300, that of nylon manja was between Rs700-800.
Blaming local authorities for their inaction, activists feel nylon manja should have been seized by now. "The NGT banned the sale in July but, still, nylon manja is available in markets today. There is no point in taking action close to Makar Sankranti (January 14) by which time most of the stock would have been sold out," said founder of Green Vigil Kaustav Chatterjee.
Arvind Raturi, founder of King Cobra Organisation Youth Force, said that the ban could not be implemented in the city. "Synthetic manja is available in almost every market because the authorities are not stringent," he added.
Municipal commissioner Ashwin Mudgal said that concerned officials of health department have been directed to take precautionary measures. "We will also forward the complaints to police for initiating legal action against sale of manja," he added.
Commissioner of police K Venkatesham assured that police will start raiding different markets to seize nylon manja.
