JAIPUR: With every passing minute on Sunday volunteers were seen rushing to
makeshift birds hospital while holding injured or dead birds. Besides pigeons, other species like Brahminy Kites, parrots and eagles lost their lives to
glass-coated manjha as the people of Jaipur did not hesitate in flying kites with the
banned Chinese manjha. This deadly manjha is not imported from China but is locally made even in Jaipur. The bright sunny day which added colors to the citizens overburdened bird saviours.
The rough estimates say that over 600 birds were rescued by rescue missions operated by animal rights groups. The makeshift camps reflected scenes of a hospital in a war zone. The veterinary doctors and volunteers worked non-stop picking the injured birds from spot, rushing to hospital followed by doctors carrying out required surgeries. Those injured fatally were shifted to government bird hospitals as they require time to recover.
RAKSHA, an animal rights group has managed to carry out crucial surgeries due to its team of doctors and surgical equipment. "The surgical equipment helped in saving the lives of many birds. Crucial surgeries like stitching arms, fractured feet etc were conducted," said Rohit Gangwal of RAKSHA.
The doctors shared the horrors inside the operation theatre. "It was evident that those who came in contact with the Chinese manjha have either face amputations or death. Some of the birds had come completely entangled in manjha and required lot of time to remove those strings. The longer the process, the chances of survival become very less. A pregnant parrot was so badly injured that an egg partly came out from the womb," said Dr Vikas Sharma, a veterinarian and a volunteer at Jain Mandir at
Jawahar Circle.
The rescue calls didn't stop even after the sun went down. Rescuing injured birds spotted in the evening becomes the priority of the volunteers. "After sunlight spotting them becomes difficult and they become easy target for dogs and cats. Next morning the carcasses of these birds can be seen on every street and corner indicating the mayhem caused to the winged creatures on the day of festival," said Sunil Gupta of Sewa Samarpan.
