HYDERABAD: Even two months after Sankranthi, Chinese manja continues to be a nightmare for birds. On Saturday, a fully-grown eagle found itself entangled in the manja near Malkapet government hospital and had to be rescued by the fire department personnel.
The rescue was conducted at Malakpet Area Hospital, situated a kilometre away from Malakpet Fire Station on Saturday.
While it was an odd call for the firefighters, the rescue operation included the officials climbing up two ladders to reach a height of about 50 feet where the bird was stuck on a branch.
“It was a different experience for us as we had to save a life instead of our routine job of dousing flames. However, the challenge to climb up was difficult,” said Mirza Karamatullah, leading fire man, Malakpet.
Shiva Kumar, a volunteer of Blue Cross, who informed the fire department about the bird, said that the bird was already hanging, entangled in the manja, from Friday. “The wooden branch on which it was hanging was also dry that made the operation all the more difficult,” he said.
“It was very painful to see its family members, who were on another branch, trying to cut the thread but to no avail,” Kumar said, while lamenting the use of Chinese manja.
However, the eagle sustained a few injuries and after being administered first-aid, it was able to stand, and is recovering.