'Eco-friendly' kite festival in heart of Delhi

Professional kite flyers from as many as 34 European and South Asian countries including England, Italy, Ukraine, Vietnam, Cambodia, Switzerland and Lithuania participated in the event, where they skillfully displayed the use of nylon-made kites and strings to fly kites instead of the traditional abrasive strings.

The festival was organised at Connaught Place.

"The four-hour long event was organised as a part of a week-long 25th International Kite Flying Festival of Gujarat, scheduled to commence on January 8," Soman S Pathy, Senior Manager of Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Limited, said.

He said the idea behind festival was to promote culture of "eco-friendly" kite flying in the country by popularising the use of nylon made kites and strings, which are harmless to birds.

"Besides an effort to keep our centuries old traditional sport-cum-art form alive and to mark Makar Sakranti celebrations, rationale behind the festival is to discourage the use of abrasive strings for kite flying.

"Such strings cause unimaginable harm to birds, hence, rendering the kite flying as eco-threatening sports. Here we invite kite flying professionals from all across the globe, who display the use of modern nylon made kites and strings as an alternative to our traditional method of kite flying", Soman said.

Being smooth and non-abrasive, nylon-strings hardly cause any injury to birds, he added.

Soman said kite flyers from across 75 countries would participate in the International Kite Festival of Gujrat, which would be organised in various cities of the state and culminate on the occasion of Makar Sakranti, on January 14.

The festival is being organised since the past 25 years and culminates on Makar Sakranti, he added.