PUNE: The city revelled in the changing winds on Makar Sankranti on Saturday on Saturday, while rescue volunteers answered calls for help when it came to also came calls for birds being injured by the thread (manja) used to fly kites.As many as 50 birds were hurt and rescued throughout the day, rescue volunteers told TOI. The curse of the nylon thread ( Chinese Manja ) and the traditional glass-coated manja was felt despite the ban on the former.According to Manoj Oswal from People for Animals (PFA), the organization’s helpline received as many as 30 calls informing about injured birds from across the city. “A number of these birds received non-threatening injuries. Most of them were simply tangled in the loose threads,” he said.Nevertheless, there were some close calls as well. Anil Avachite, who has been rescuing injured birds for 36 years, said that he had managed to rescue a barn owl as well as two kites. Another rarity was a grey heron, which was rescued by a volunteer from the Pune District Wildlife and Snake Protectors Association. The most commonly hurt birds included pigeons and crows.“One of the kites received a severe cut on its wing and had to be given further treatment,” Avachite said. Calls came in from local residents, including from areas such as Mandai, Padamsee Park, and Sadashiv Peth reporting birds tangled in the threads, and injured.Animal rescue experts from the Katraj Zoo said there were considerably fewer calls and injured birds recorded this year. Rajan Shirke from the animal rescue and rehabilitation centre at the Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park in Katraj said, “The number of birds injured this year was much lower. There was one serious case of a kite receiving a deep cut on the wing but no other major cases. It appears there were fewer birds altogether in the sky on Saturday.”The rescuers, however, anticipate that on with the following day being Sunday, more kites would hit the skies be flown leading to an increase in the number of cases of birds being injured may be reported.