Hyderabad 'Firemen' Save 'Eagle' Hanging By Kite Thread

The Emergency and Fire Services Department received an unusual call on Tuesday morning. An unfortunate eagle was stuck on a tree-top near the Secretariat, and was painfully entangled in kite strings or manja.

The eagle was hanging about 100 ft from the ground. The sharp manza was around one of its wings and the bird was battling in vain to free itself. Onlookers, who noticed the eagle’s plight, alerted the officials. 

At first, a fire tender at the Secretariat was deployed to rescue the bird. Balaiah, a fireman, climbed the tree and tried hard to free the eagle but the height presented a problem. A bigger fire tender, Simon, was then called but that too wasn’t any good.

Finally, the officials brought Bronto Skylift, which has a range of several metres. Additional Deputy Fire Officer K Vijaya Kumar and Station Fire Officer B Sudarshan Reddy used the skylift and cut the threads, freeing the eagle. But, the left wing of the bird was by then bruised due to its attempts to wriggle out of the sharp thread (manja) used for kite flying.

However, it managed to fly to another tree near the Nalla Pochamma temple and rest for a while. Later, it flew away, perhaps, after completely recovering.

The rescue operation, which went on for over an hour, attracted over 100 spectators, including the Secretariat staff. All of them cheered the firemen as they went about their task and gave them a big applause when they freed the bird.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s convoy arrived just after the fire tenders left the Secretariat premises.