People Of This Odisha Village Have Stopped Using ‘Killer Manja’ To Save Birds

Virtually every house in this village has artificial nests hung in the courtyard for sparrow families. This is Gunthabandha, a village on the outskirts of Odisha’s Berhampur. 

At a time when the dwindling population of sparrows in the country has become a matter of grave concern, news of the inhabitants of this village discarding the use of the abrasive manja thread for kite flying to save sparrows and other birds of their area comes like a breath of fresh air. Glass powder-coated manja can cut throats and body parts of humans. As the thread does not break easily, a large number of birds are seriously injured and die when they get entangled in manja.

It is a matter of pride that the number of sparrows and other birds in the area has grown due to this effort in the last one year. 

The credit for this goes to a youth organisation, Anchalika Vikash Parishad (AVP). Volunteers of this group have taken upon themselves the task of creating a model for house sparrow conservation through artificial nests and feeders. 

The trigger was Cyclone Phailin in 2013, which wiped away most of the bird population in this village. 

“We realised the danger when we found young sparrow hatchlings injured by the manja kept in our homes. Then we found other birds getting killed by manja,” said AVP’s president Sagar Kumar Patra. According to the secretary of the organisation, Bijendra Majhi, injuries to sparrows caused by manja thread made the children of Gunthabandha unhappy as they consider sparrows their playmates. The children in turn convinced elders and family members to stop the use of manja thread for kite flying.

This does not mean that kite flying, a major winter pastime at this village has stopped completely. “Like most youths and children of Gunthabandha, I have not stopped flying kites. But we use plain thread instead of manja so that we don’t harm sparrows and other birds, whom we consider members of our village,” said a villager.

The motivation has rubbed off to the people of neighbouring villages such as Adapada and Dhunkapada too, where people have stopped using manja.

The Forest Department too, has taken up a project to make Ganjam “the first sparrow-friendly district of the state through the use of artificial nests with the help of AVP.  Sparrow conservation is underway in at least one village in each of the 22 blocks of the district, along with the Berhampur and Gopalpur towns.