A funeral procession for birds killed during Surat kite festival

Surat, Jan 18 (ANI): Wildlife enthusiasts and activists here on Sunday carried out a funeral procession of birds entangled in strings and killed during Thursday's kite flying festival of Uttrayan.

Many birds have fallen victim to the deadly glass-coated kite strings, which are also known as 'manja'.

Volunteers took to the streets to create awareness, saying "No to the use of glass coated stings.

"Our organisation tried our level best to save the birds from entangling into the strings during the kite flying festival, but those which died, we are expressing our grief and thus took out a funeral procession. We took them to Ashwini cremation grounds and cremated them with respect there," said Manik Kumar, a bird lover.

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has urged kite lovers not to use glass-coated 'manja'.

PETA has also suggested people avoid flying kites before 9 am and after 5 pm, as this is the time when birds go out in search of food, or return to their nests. (ANI)