Kite flying seems like a harmless sport. But it can also be deadly – earlier this week, two children and a man were killed after their throats were slit by kite strings that had been coated with glass.
Kite flying is a popular sport in India and Pakistan. There was even a time when men fought brutal battles in the skies with their kites.
In one of his evocative short stories, Indian author Ruskin Bond describes “kites swerving and swooping in the sky, tangling with each other until the string of one was severed”, during kite battles in the first half of the 20th Century.
“Then the defeated and liberated kite would float away into the blue unknown… There was a good deal of betting, and money frequently changed hands. Kite-flying was then the sport of kings,” he writes.
But now, kite fighting has also become known as a dangerous activity.
“For a lot of people, kite flying is no longer a recreational sport. Flyers are using dangerous strings, and the harmless cotton strings has been forgotten,” says Mehul Pathak, founder of a kite flying club in Gujarat.
Many kite strings are coated with metal or crushed glass mixed with glue, to help cut the strings of rival kites in hotly-contested flying contests.
And in the past five years, flyers have started using nylon strings laced with glass, which are stronger, and more dangerous, than regular kite strings. These strings do not snap easily, and have been blamed for the recent deaths.
Falling kite strings can be lethal.
They catch unsuspecting bikers across the throat, often killing them.
The two children who died in Delhi this week were looking out through the sunroof of their cars when the falling strings slit their throats.
Metal-coated strings have fallen on electricity lines and overhead power cables, and people have been electrocuted while trying to retrieve their kites. These strings have also caused short-circuits and power outages.
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