Kite flying safety in India: manja, rooftop falls, power lines and injured birds, before Makar Sankranti and Uttarayan

Every January the same few things happen in the same few lanes. A man on a motorcycle runs into a thin thread he never saw. A child leans over a parapet to follow a kite. A boy reaches for a kite stuck on a wire. A pigeon or a kite-eating bird comes down with its wing cut. None of it needs bad luck. It needs a thread, a roof and a crowded festival day, and most of it can be avoided by a family that talks about it the week before. This page is for Makar Sankranti, Uttarayan and the kite days around Lohri and Basant, and it is written so you can read it in five minutes and act on it before the first kite goes up. Checked 10 November 2026.

In short

• On a two-wheeler, fit a kite-string guard before the festival, cover your neck, ride slowly and keep small children off the front. Gujarat Police urged riders to fit guards in January 2026, and Surat Police fitted guards and neck collars and barred two-wheelers from flyovers on the two kite days, according to news reports.
• On the terrace, stay well back from the edge, keep children under an adult’s eye, and never lean out for a kite. Never climb to get one.
• Near wires, do not fly, do not reach, do not pull a kite off a line. Metal-coated string can carry current. If someone is shocked, do not touch them: switch off at the source or call 112 and the electricity company.
• Use plain cotton thread. Synthetic and nylon manja has been banned across India by the National Green Tribunal since July 2017.
• Birds. In Gujarat, an injured bird goes to the nearest Karuna Abhiyan rescue centre; the animal helpline is 1962 and the Forest Department helpline is 1926. Avoid flying kites before 9 am and after 5 pm, when birds are moving.
• Cut or bleeding? Press firmly on the wound with a clean cloth, add more cloth if it soaks through, and call 108 or 112 straight away.

What Uttarayan 2026 looked like in Gujarat

Gujarat is where the festival is counted most closely, so its figures are the best picture we have of a kite day. They are one state and one festival, not an India total.

• Deaths. A PTI report of 15 January 2026 recorded at least four deaths: three from kite string (a 35-year-old man riding a motorcycle in Bharuch district, an 8-year-old boy riding with his father in Anand district, and a 17-year-old in Aravalli district, all with severe neck injuries) and one electrocution (a 33-year-old man in Vadodara district who was trying to take a kite off an electric pole).
• Ambulance calls. According to an official release quoted in that report, the 108 service handled 5,897 emergency cases across Gujarat on Wednesday, 14 January, which was 33% more than a normal day. Non-vehicular trauma rose 171% and the release put this down to kite flying, rooftop falls, physical assaults and electrocution. Vehicular trauma rose 118.7%. Ahmedabad had 1,176 cases against a normal-day average of 833. The report gives no separate count of rooftop falls.
• Birds. Gujarat Samachar reported on 16 January that 5,439 birds were injured by kite strings during Uttarayan and 4,937 were rescued, about 91%. It also quoted animal helpline 1962 data showing bird emergencies up 1,669% on normal days.

These are news reports of official releases; we did not see the release itself. Counts are early and may have been revised later.

Two-wheelers and manja

A thin string stretched across a road at neck height is almost invisible at speed. In the PTI report, two of the three string deaths were on a motorcycle, and one of them was a child riding with his father. Here is what is being done and what you can do yourself.

• Fit a kite-string guard. A thin wire guard or arch fixed to the handlebar and standing up above the rider’s face catches a stray thread before it reaches the neck. Gujarat Police urged riders to fit them in a drive reported on 8 January 2026. Surat Police fitted metal arches and U-guards for riders and handed out neck collars made of thick synthetic leather, as reported on 9 January 2026. Ask at your local police station or traffic office whether a free fitting drive is on; do not rely on a guard you bought without checking that it stands taller than your head.
• Cover the neck. A neck collar, a thick scarf or a high jacket collar adds a layer. This is our own suggestion, not an official standard.
• Know the flyover rule where you live. Surat barred two-wheelers from flyovers and elevated roads on 14 and 15 January 2026, according to the same report. Rules differ by city and year, so look for this year’s order.
• Slow down and keep children off the front. On the two kite days, avoid carrying a small child standing or sitting in front of the rider. If you can, avoid riding in the open late morning to evening when the sky is full of kites. These two points are our advice.
• If you see a thread across the road, slow down, stop well before it and do not snatch at it. Warn the rider behind you.

On the law, the National Green Tribunal’s order of 11 July 2017 banned manja made of nylon or any synthetic material and told Chief Secretaries to enforce it, with the Central Pollution Control Board monitoring compliance, according to an ETV Bharat report of May 2026. That report says the ban has not been uniformly enforced, and speaks of a recent death of a child in Delhi from a string. In Gujarat, the police crackdown covered nearly 100 cases across Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Vadodara and Surat between November and 8 January 2026, with Ahmedabad city alone reporting 55 cases and 63 arrests since 18 December 2025. That is a report of an enforcement drive, not of how many deaths it prevented. If you see banned thread being sold, tell the police; do not buy it to “see what it is”.

Rooftop falls

The 108 release counted rooftop falls inside its non-vehicular figure and gave no separate number. NCRB’s 2024 figures on our state-wise accident deaths page show 26,437 deaths from falls of every kind in India in 2024, so a kite day is one small slice of a large problem. We do not claim any share of those are kite-related.

• Choose the spot. A flat roof with a high, solid parapet is better than one with a low wall or open sides. Keep clear of the edge, stairwell openings and unfinished roofs.
• One adult, always. Children do not go up alone, and no one flies a kite while walking backwards or looking up near an edge. Our advice.
• Do not lean, do not climb. No reaching over a parapet, no climbing on a water tank or a wall to free a kite, no jumping between roofs.
• Footwear and fatigue. Flat, non-slip shoes. Take a break from the sun and from long hours of standing; bring water.
• Do not fly on a roof near a wire or a transformer. Tata Power-DDL’s advisory says exactly this.

Wires and electrocution

Our guide on overhead wires near houses, balconies and terraces gives the CEA clearance rules and what to report to the electricity company. For kite day, the rules are simpler.

• Fly in an open ground or park, away from overhead lines and electrical installations, as Tata Power-DDL advised on 11 August 2025.
• Avoid metal-coated string. The same advisory says it can carry current and trip lines.
• If a kite sticks on a line, leave it. Do not pull the string, do not use a bamboo or iron rod and do not climb the pole. A new kite costs a few rupees.
• Wet cloth, wet string, wet roofs make a bad situation worse. Our caution, not a measured figure.
• If someone is shocked, do not touch them or the string. Switch off at the source if it is a home wire, or call 112 and ask the electricity company to cut the supply, then call 108. See our wires guide, and the three cases of people touched by 11 kV lines listed below.

Injured birds

Kite strings also cut birds, and the injured ones tend to fall in the very lanes where children play. These details are for Gujarat and come from a report on the state’s Karuna Abhiyan of 13 January 2026.

• The Forest Department runs helpline 1926 and a WhatsApp number, 8320002000. Send “Hi” to it and you get a link to district-wise treatment centres.
• The Animal Husbandry Department’s animal helpline is 1962, which sends the Karuna animal ambulance. The report said that for an injured bird you should contact the nearest rescue centre at once or call 1962.
• The report said 1,036 treatment and collection centres, about 728 veterinary doctors and 8,620 volunteers are part of the campaign, and that 12,771 animals and birds were rescued the previous year.
• It advised avoiding kite flying before 9 am and after 5 pm, the busy hours for birds, and avoiding plastic string, Chinese manja and glass-coated string.
• We found no official instruction on how to handle an injured bird yourself, so we do not give one. Call the helpline.

Outside Gujarat, numbers differ by state. Look up your own forest department or a local wildlife rescue group before the festival and save the number.

If someone is cut by string

The NHS cuts-and-grazes page (last reviewed 2 April 2026) and the WHO Community First Aid Response pocket guide agree on the basics for a bleeding wound. This is general first aid, and these are foreign and global pages; the Indian numbers are 108 and 112.

• Press firmly on the wound with a clean folded cloth or a bandage. WHO says to press on the part that is bleeding most and to lie the person down.
• If blood soaks through, put more cloth on top. Do not take off the first one (NHS).
• Do not pull out anything stuck in the wound; press around it.
• NHS lists bleeding you cannot stop, blood that spurts, a very large or deep wound and a bad cut on the face as reasons to call an ambulance. Throat and neck cuts from string are serious, so we would call 108 or 112 at once, keep pressing and not wait to see.
• Do not drive the person yourself if you can get an ambulance, and do not leave them alone.

Neither source covers neck wounds specifically. If you want a short course, our guide on basic first aid, including bleeding is a starting point.

What not to do

• Do not use or sell Chinese, nylon or glass-coated manja.
• Do not ride without a guard, or with a small child in front of you, on a kite day.
• Do not lean over a parapet or climb a wall, tank or pole for a kite.
• Do not touch a person or string that is touching a wire.
• Do not tie a thread across a road or between poles.
• Do not try to treat an injured bird on your own; call the rescue helpline.

Do these this week

• Fit a kite-string guard on the family two-wheeler, or find out whether your police station is running a fitting drive.
• Look at your terrace: parapet height, loose bricks, water tank, any wire within arm’s reach.
• Buy plain cotton thread only. Remove any old manja from the house.
• Save 108, 112 and your electricity company’s helpline on every phone, and the bird helpline if you are in Gujarat.
• Talk to the children: the kite is never worth a climb.
• Read our pages on emergency numbers in India and how to call 112, 101 or 108. City pages worth a look: Ahmedabad safety guide, Surat safety guide, Vadodara safety guide and Rajkot safety guide.

What we could not confirm

We found no national count of kite-string deaths or of kite-related falls, and the Gujarat counts above are early news figures of one festival. We read the Gujarat 108 numbers through a PTI report, not the release. We could not open the Business Standard report of the 2017 order (access refused), so the NGT details rest on an ETV Bharat report of May 2026. We did not open the text of any Gujarat Police notification, so we give no penalty. The Surat flyover rule is for January 2026 and may be different this year. The Karuna Abhiyan numbers are from January 2026 and may be reissued. We found no Indian official page on first aid for a neck cut from string; the first aid steps are from NHS and WHO. We found no Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn clip we could check, so the videos below are YouTube. We did not watch them in full and their spoken language was not reviewed. The date of Makar Sankranti and Uttarayan in 2027 should be taken from your own calendar; in 2026 the festival fell on 14 and 15 January in Gujarat. This page is general information.