Cuttack: A nephew and his aunt sustained critical neck injuries after coming in contact with a banned glass-coated kite string, commonly known as Chinese manja, on the river embankment road near Sriram Sahi in 42 Mouza area of Odisha’s Cuttack on Wednesday.
According to sources, the incident took place when Debi Kalyan Acharya was riding a motorcycle wit
h his aunt, Ashalata Acharya, from their village towards Cuttack and an invisible manja string hanging across the road slashed their necks, causing deep cuts and heavy bleeding. The sudden injury led Acharya to lose control, resulting in the vehicle veering off the road. Both victims were immediately rushed to a local hospital and later shifted to SCB Medical College and Hospital, where they are receiving treatment.
Such incident has once again highlighted the continuing menace of Chinese manja — a nylon or synthetic thread coated with powdered glass or metal for competitive kite-fighting — ahead of the Makar Sankranti festival, when kite-flying reaches its peak, despite a ban imposed by the Odisha High Court following a tragic 2016 child fatality.