forest hut

With the coming of the Kite-flying festive celebrations, I thought I would write a story with the facts that so many of the avid kite-fliers hide from.

It is Dawn. Mamma Warbler wakes up. She nudges her chicks awake. Slowly, the three chicks stir. They cheep sleepily. Their eyes are still not open. Then they realize that it is morning. And morning means food! The smallest one cheeps. Then another one cheeps. Soon, all the three chicks are cheeping for food. Mamma lovingly preens their feathers & tells them to be patient. She will soon fly out, to look for food. After a consolation, the chicks huddle up again quietly. Mamma tells them to stay good, and swiftly flies off.

Somehow it is very noisy today. That is, noisier than usual. Along with the regular rumble of vehicles, there are sounds of laughter, screams & shouts, not to mention speakers blaring at full volume. It hurts in Mamma’s ears. The sky is dotted with pinpricks of colors. 

Mamma had recently discovered a tree that had delicious berries. They are her chicks’ favorite. The berries are plump & juicy.

Any other day, she would have been able to reach there quickly. Though today the noise confuses & scares her. She is too frightened to take her usual path. She will have to take another route.

Another route means more risk. The territory may belong to a hostile predator. Or a cat. Slowly, pausing at every few meters, Mamma takes a detour.

Meanwhile, at home, something is wrong. One of the chicks is suffering…

There is a loudspeaker nearby, & the people are playing it at full blast. The noise is too much for the minuscule ears of the chick. He squeals in pain. The chick falls over, twitching violently & making feeble sounds. He is in serious pain, & the other two chicks sense it. Even though they cannot see, they know something is really wrong. The noise affects them too. But it is worse for the littlest one. The two chicks get scared & start cheeping for Mamma. But there’s too much noise & Mamma cannot hear them. Meanwhile the chick’s movements are getting weaker. Now only his little legs are moving. His beak is opening and closing. The poor chick is gasping for breath, but there is no air. He’s trying to say something, but there is no sound. The sharp intakes of breath slowly shorten.

And gradually.

Silence.

Apart from the loudspeaker.

Meanwhile, Mamma had reached the tree. She perches & eats a berry. And another. She is happy that she finally got to the tree. After she has eaten to her fill, she fills her beak with squashed berries, for the chicks back at the nest. Oh, the chicks would be so happy! She thinks to herself.

Just as she is about to take off, her feet get entangled in some kind of thread. She tries again, but she seems to be stuck. The more Mamma tries, the tighter the hold becomes. Now the thread is cutting into Mamma’s feet. She falls to the ground with a thud. Blood trickles down her cut legs. Mamma cries in pain. As she flutters around helplessly, some of the kite string gets onto her wings. Fear grips her, & she struggles yet more violently. The berries have all fallen out of her mouth as she was screaming. The more she flutters, the more she bleeds. Soon her wing feather glistening dark red. Mamma is now completely tangled in the string.

Even though Mamma is calling at the top of her musical voice for help, nobody can hear her over the din of the firecrackers and the loudspeaker. Mamma’s one wing is bent behind, & the other is outstretched. Exhausted, she lies still. Mamma can see firecrackers bursting over her head.

She knows that she’s going.

Mamma thinks of her chicks, all alone in the nest. She struggles some more. But she only bleeds.

It’s evening now. The crackers are in full swing now.

The kites are still in the sky, and people are shouting everywhere. They think kite-flying is fun.

Mamma is still beneath the tree. But she’s no more.

The two chicks calling for their mother. Waiting…

Waiting…

Waiting…  

And they will as long as they can.

There. Birds throughout India like Mamma Warbler die due to Our “celebrations”, and yet, we choose deliberately to ignore, for the sake of entertainment. The open sky, representing freedom, becomes a death trap. The appalling truth is that most of the enthusiastic kite-fliers know that they are being insensitive, and still refuse to let go of their kite-flying addiction. For those who remain ignorant about their impact on the environment, I can only hope that they become aware.

Children and adults alike are hooked on to this so called “tradition”. I am disgusted at the enthusiasm of children at the prospect of flying kites, but really, it’s the parents who are at fault. Instead of teaching their children to be responsible citizens of earth, children are taught to obtain crude and mindless entertainment and ignore the dark reality.

In India, kite-flying has been banned in the mornings and evenings. While a small number of deaths are averted, that hardly mitigates the true threat. As seen in the above story, getting entangled in string – glass-coated or not – is a agonizingly slow and bloody way to die.

Though awareness is very gradually spreading through India about the consequences of Kite-flying, nothing will happen unless each individual takes responsibility as an earthling, and shows some long due respect.

Some victims of kite-flying

Image credits:
    International Fund for Animal Welfare
    DNA India
    India Today
    BirbObserver
    World Animal Protection India