Why doesn't the journalist tell us how we can make a donation to Wildlife Rescue? I'll bet many of the readers would be happy to do so.
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Would it be possible to put a link to their GoFundMe page at the end of the article?
https://www.gofundme.com/f/friends-of-wildlife-rescue-in-delhi
If not the full link, perhaps just mention that there is one and people can find it, as another commenter mentioned. Thank you.
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How may we donate to this organization?
Laura in New Mexico
18
Love this! Truly inspirational and would love to help their organization
18
What a labor of love. Thank you gentleman for your humanity and concern for these birds. Thanks to the NYT for posting this!
22
This story shines a light of hope and love into my tired heart tonight.
19
The world needs more people like these men.
27
These trash eating birds are the “lucky “ ones I guess. In a city of 23 million there is enough garbage in the polluted mess for them to survive if they can avoid the kites. In the US with 330 million people, 1/3 of the birds have disappeared in the last few decades. Seems if we want any of the vibrant life on this planet to survive we could consider leaving some of the planet for other animals and the systems we all need to survive. It would have to involve having something less than the 7.8 billion of us here now, but what kind of world are we “creating” by using so much of it to just make billions more humans?
23
Reading what these men have given to help another simple creature makes me think, surely I can do more for wildlife myself. And surely, it's wrong to give up.
22
Refreshing change from the typically negative coverage by this paper from India. Thanks!
19
Well done, gentlemen, for your compassionate work for the birds. I wish there were more people like you.
My ancestors were from India (I've never been back), and current stories about India are just so incredibly depressing. What strikes me is the apathy and indifference to the well-being of the environment and fellow creatures - Rivers should be revered and respected, not turned ino toxic dumps like the Yamuna River.
And if adozen people a year are killed by the threads, goodness, why isnt there an outcry to have the glass-covered threads banned?! Life seems so cheap and doesn't seem to be valued. From the land that gave us yoga, and the yogic way of life, and great philosophy and culture, what a very great shame.
21
Painful to watch the skies in New Delhi, the pollution is simple appalling. All praise to these young veterinarians for doing such amazing job.
17
If only the birds could overcome being omnivores by adopting a different ‘belief system’ then they could be treated by the Jains and the brothers could play with their children.
7
Kite flying was one thing the Taliban banned, and everyone thought it was just because it was a fun activity, but there actually was another reason: it’s so dangerous.
5
Oh India! That country is one of the most hauntingly beautiful places, and this story illustrates how life exists there in all its manifestations. This story points out how kindness and cruelty, love and callousness coexist there and everywhere. The Kamla Nehru Ridge is a place I grew up walking around almost every day with my father. there are monkeys, and birds, and plants and a manicured wilderness has taken over some of the British era ruins. People stop by on way to work to feed bananas to monkeys, and wheatgerm to birds. Just small acts of kindness and pleasure. What an apt place to put the birds to rest. I want to go back to that place which is and will be my home no matter where I am.
16
I am sure people will come forward to support such a good cause. Please do not give up. Support will come me your way with all the positivity that this story comes with.
8
The "Jains cannot handle meat". For your information Mahavir the one credited to have started Jainism in India,maybe much before Buddha was an even strict believer in Non-Violence.
3
A small detail that could provide context for the Jain hospital (this is also at the heart of the story of the legendary king whose painting is on the wall of the hospital).
The dilemma is that Jains are spiritually bound to protecting all life forms. As a consequence it becomes impossible to feed and tend a kite especially on temple premises because feeding it would involve the death of another life form.
In the legend of King Meghraj, a hawk pursues a pigeon, who flutters into the lap of the king. And the king, to protect it carves his own flesh and gives it to the hawk because going to a butcher would take the life of another creature.
As some of you may know, Jains will not even eat potatoes or onions for example because to get them the microbes and insects in the soil are disturbed and rendered homeless.
That religious and cultural context is necessary to understand the actions of the hospital, even if one doesn’t agree with it. 
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There must be some way that an international wildlife organization can provide help for the work these brothers are doing. Have the brothers or someone on their behalf looked into this? What about the World Wildlife Fund for example?Maybe National Audubon has contacts that could help. I will use the contact information supplied to contact the wildlife groups that I support to see if they can help Wildlife Rescue.
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@JeanneG thank you. I was thinking the same thing. I’ll bet it is not a large amount of funding required in western terms. Good luck to you.
8
They left contact information below in the comments so you can reach them whenever they are ready and approved to receive the funds! Beautiful story this is indeed...
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Is there a way I can support their efforts financially? I grew up in India and made Manja by hand with my brothers for kites. I never realized that it was so dangerous for birds! I applaud the work they are doing. Please share how we might be able to help this amazing work. Thank you for this report!
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@AC I went to their FB page and tried to donate- actually set up for Indian donors, not Americans. An American online fundraiser should have been set up to accompany this article
10
@Rita Eagle
See more below from them about this - Times Pic.
4
I’ve visited India maybe 40 times and with each visit am made aware how little I know of this staggeringly diverse culture. One thing I do know: Indians of all creeds and castes are largely hospitable and caring, and in the midst of daily suffering go to extraordinary lengths to alleviate suffering, as illustrated in this fine story.
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One of the aspects of Indian life I appreciated the most - which could never occur in the US or most Western countries, if for no other reason than health regulations - is the genuine acceptance of animals, tame or wild, within the human habitat. So it is that you could find any animal which can manage to eke out a living in the city. One dog took up a spot in the middle of a crowded narrow passageway, all passerbys giving it its space.
It is even more striking, when considering how many humans barely eke out a living themselves, that many would take care of animals in need.
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Both are certainly doing good work but I have learnt one thing unless this charity work is likely to attract big money like Gates foundation or selling vote-attracting idea of Indianism to outside world, public entities never help. They are lucky that their work is cute and does not attract the threat which all those who are without aid but still doing candid work of pointing the wastage of public money and injustices in society do via SMSes.
3
Great story. The love for birds is universal and runs very deep in the hearts of many people.
26
Thank you for sharing their story and plight saving these gracious raptors.
23
Like most people in the world (I hope), I've loved birds since childhood, but for me, raptors of all kinds were at the top of my list of favorite birds.
So yes, I too want to thank these brothers and their families for their life's work of caring for these injured birds.
But I also want to thank Oliver Whang, Saumya Khandelwal, and their entire support crew at The New York Times for giving this story to us all; you're really great!
While the army of ideologues The New York Times employs to meet the demands of the corporate sponsors who pay for its existence receive my scorn, The New York Times's people who are giving the world great stories like this one here receive my gratitude and my sincere thanks for their excellent work—work that allows me to more deeply understand and more deeply appreciate this Earth we live on and this world that we humans have so profoundly shaped, for much better and for much worse.
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The lead photo is so wonderful, with the majestic and disregarded bird flying above everything below, aptly fogged. I found it so interesting the Jains couldn’t help them because of what they needed to eat.
A bird that we would protect is a cast off, tangled in kite string.
Keep flying kites, lose the glass.
So many contradictions, starting with the name of the bird itself. Perhaps relocation would be helpful.
15
@threadeater it is because their concept of ahimsa excludes meat eating. If the kites are beans and cheese the Jains would have accepted. They cannot bring meat inside premises and practitioners will not touch it. I had a jain girl friend who would vomit just by the smell of meat.
2
I hate to be a nabob of negativism and though I applaud the wonderful people who admire and care for these injured birds, please don't try to stop people flying paper kites. I
would hate to see this develop into something similar to
a ban-the-straw movement.
I grew up flying paper kites, gazing up in the sky on a beautiful morning to see great colored kites flying with
elaborate tails. Its so much fun to have your paper kite lift off and especially in dense cities,it is quite a challenge to get it going.
More often than not my kite and those of others would get caught in the electric and phone wires strung along the streets.
Yes some of those paper kites used abrasive string, while mostly others used plain old string, since if you were not careful it would cut into your fingers. So they had harmless paper kite fights to see who could turn the other guys kite loose.
It was a great feeling to watch a paper kite battle in the
air and see the loser kind of just float away untethered into oblivion.
In addition to saving the birds, I suggest we fund some organization to encourage paper kite flying as a hobby with some safety caveats.
Regards
9
@Newshourjunkie
It’s not about kite flying but rather the manja (glass coated string). Kite flying ok; manja not
6
“ If not us, then nobody is going to take care of them.”
A daily lifestyle transmuted into words. Values. Norms.
And existential ethic of ordinary folk. THERE!
Imagine, what would it BE like, if the minions of personally unaccountable policymakers, elected and selected ones, at
all levels, and political, and ideological, persuasions, HERE, as
well as WHEREVER, carried out their oaths and mandates to BE
agents for equitable, sustainable wellbeing for ALL.
Mutual trust wouldn’t be teetering in a divided nation, semantically united.
Mutual respect would be ravished.
Civility wouldn’t be challenged, constricted, and collapsing.
Compassion wouldn’t be constrained.
Hands would be closed-fisted barriers; BEing openly inviting.
Imagine, who else, but each of US, separately and with others,
choosing to contribute, each at our own pace, unique way(s), as
best as we can, and as often as we can,to make a difference in and
for the life of ALL living BEings, including our planet.
43
Such an incredible story of these men. Thank you for sharing
60
Thank you everyone for your kind words.
Here in India we need to get a permission from the Home Ministry to accept funds from outside India. We will be applying for it shortly but it will take few months to get the approval. Meanwhile we are in talks with US organizations to accept funds on our behalf and when we get the permission then they will transfer the funds to us.
You can stay in touch with me on [email protected]
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@Nadeem Shehzad You may already know this, but you may want to reach out to Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Wild Bird Fund NYC. Especially with regards to Wild Bird Fund NYC, their supporters may be interested in a special fundraising drive, whereby the monies raised are specifically intended to help out local birds in another densely-populated city such as ours, namely, New Delhi... ;-)
15
@Nadeem Shehzad
keep up the great work sir! - as a lifelong birder both in the US (i see the great Bald Eagle flying to our local Milpitas town dump) just as I have seen the Brahminy Kite (looks a lot like the American bald eagle) soar around the garbage piles of Bengaluru - i wonder if one species' trash is in fact another's treasure. will look for ways to support you. Pls understand my other comment was that people of different religions come together for common cause - birds - even if they dont actually agree on cultural norms.
10
@Nadeem Shehzad Firstly, thank you for what you are doing to save the birds. When I lived in Mumbai, I went birdwatching with an org called BNHS (Bombay Natural History Society). I see there is a BNHS in Delhi as well. Have you asked BNHS Delhi to help? I was disappointed in the NYT that the article showed Jains in a bad light because of their religious beliefs. That is just mean. Surely there are many other places in Delhi where meat is available to feed the birds? There must be numerous chicken slaughter houses in Delhi! And, NYT, I have never associated kite flying with national pride. Incongruous. We don't sing the national anthem before flying a kite. And in Mumbai it only happens in January.
6
Your compassion is appreciated from afar, gentlemen.
Dilliwales: How about you just substitute plain kite string for the manja? Not all traditions are good ones, you know. How much of a sacrifice would that be to prevent unnecessary suffering?
53
God bless these brothers! :-)
47
Can the author find out where we can send financial help?
34
Echoing comments below - please post a way to donate to this group!!
22
If you want to help, contact Nadeem Shehzad and ask to be added to the list to be told when the charity can accept money. Currently, they will be fined if they accept money from overseas but that may change in a few months.
18
Thank you for shedding light on these brothers. They are heroes. We need to address past times in all our cultures that have deadly affects on our wildlife and in turn ourselves.
32
The charity says they cannot receive any money from overseas. Sorry for providing transfer information in an earlier comment. Do not use it. It is against the law and the money will be seized by the government. This law is because the government is worried about foreign interference and does not distinguish political from charity contributions.
12
As a young person, I backpacked around the world. One of my last stops was India. Of course, I visited the Taj Mahal.
But at the end of a very hot day, 114 degrees on a late June day, what I remember most about Agra were the children and their parents who came out to fly kites at dusk.
It was such a lovely and simple thing to do. Parents and children enjoying the evening and kites together.
As a child of the 1970's and 1980's suburban and very consumeristic America, I had never seen such a simple thing as parents and children enjoying time together flying kites.
This memory more than the sight of the Taj Mahal has stayed with me all these years.
26
There’s another way of looking at this.
The brothers clearly don’t want to have relate to humans, and have found a way to do it.
They could, but have chosen not to, have cared for birds and their families.
I’m happy for the birds but sad for the wives and children they have forsaken by immersing themselves in this work.
12 hours a day not only helps the birds, it provides a convenient excuse for avoiding home life.
12
@DD ... a simple solution would be for them to train more caring people to help them. That is how wildlife hospital volunteerism works in the US.
20
@DD Spoken as someone who has never been put in the position of having to choose whether to help or to let something die. As a rescue volunteer I have been in that position countless times and the guilt trips put upon me by people "who are just trying to do the right thing" by extorting me to care for the animals they take responsibility for is horrific. Literally: "If you don't take this [INSERT litter of puppies or feral cat I found in the woods] I am going to have to take them down to the river and drown them." Not to mention the ones that dump and run at the shelter gates. People are awful and many can't be bothered to help but are only too happy to complain when I can no longer stretch and further. Compassion fatigue is the reason I don't do rescue anymore. So don't chastise them in absentia for being kind beyond what you deem acceptable.
78
Yes, clearly, that is what is going on.
4
Muslims, Jains, Hindus coming together to save birds in India - the story does spring hope
84
We need contact information so that we can help.
40
I would suggest that anyone wanting more info on the gas’s coated string read “The Kite Runner” to gain some basic cultural background on the practice. The poor souls really have very few options of “cheap” things to do. Not an excuse, just a reality check.
8
Yes, agreed that a link to how one can donate would be most appreciated!
16
India is our world's top practioner of the alternative/complementary medical system "homeopathy". There are many homeopathic remedies appropriate for use in the bird-injury scenarios descibed. For instance, a useful tonic to help defend against the noted gangrene and infections might include light sprays of medicinally potentized water containing the remedies Pyrogenium and/or gunpowder. Are these good hearted people in India actually not using such readily available remedies... or did this detail get edited out of this article?
9
This article obliquely highlights the incompetence of the authorities in Delhi as the Animal Hospitals appear to offload their responsibilities to private citizens. It also brings into focus the various ways Muslims in India get marginalized as their is no assistance from the state which might have been different if the players were Hindu.
Maybe they should add a section for cows and monkeys to receive state funds.
26
@Swami Satyananda ... I have volunteered at a non-profilt wildlife hospital in Washington state, USA. If it weren't for the "private citizens" doing this work, every single one of these animals would just be euthanized. Furthermore, there would be little to no education for the public about wildlife. "Private citizens" are the only ones who will care enough to do this work.
Yes, of course, it would be so excellent for them to receive state financial assistance, and I surely hope they eventually do.
21
@Swami Satyananda
In a country where thousands of human beings don't know where their next meal is coming from, saving birds is definitely a low priority issue....no matter who the savior is or what religion they follow.
Stop communalizing issues like a politician.
8
Is it all one can take out of the article - that there are religious differences? I read that different people of different backgrounds are working driven by a powerful compassion and selflessness even if their cultural and religious rules sometimes create incompatibility in some areas.
4
A proactive solution would be to advance kite flying and fighter kites with modern competition.
In the US the American Kitefliers Association holds competitions with Indian style fighter kites but without the dangerous manja line. The focus is on line touches rather than cutting. They do have line cutting with Japanese rokkaku battles but again, no sharp objects allowed.
Tradition runs deep. Fighter kites have a rich history across Asia with many styles, sizes and techniques cultivated over a thousand years. Continued advancement can both retain tradition AND protect nature.
11
How can one donate to support this initiative? Or volunteer? Can it be folded further under the umbrella of other well fortified wildlife conservation efforts such as the World Wildlife Fund for example? The Nature Conservancy?
12
Bless these people for working to help the injured birds. But I think the solution has to come from the other direction: stop the flying of kites with crushed glass glued to the strings. It’s not right to continue a tradition that is so injurious to wildlife.
65
I hope these loving people take precautions to avoid contracting zoonoses and respiratory illnesses that can be provoked by close contact with birds. I am not sure that handling Kites would be a risk for illnesses but I sure want them to protect themselves.
7
Why didn't you post a way to help them? There are so many people out there who would support this family in their work.
111
@Vanessa As of now, the brothers cannot receive money from overseas. They are in the process of getting approval to do so, but any funds transferred to them in the meantime are illegal and will be seized. Wildlife Rescue will be hurt by this. If you would like to support the organization, contact Nadeem Shehzad at [email protected] and ask to be added to the list to be told when foreign donations are accepted.
40
@Oliver Whang If money cannot be donated right now, what about purchasing supplies and food to give to them?
4
@Oliver Whang, I'm wondering if you could amend your statement to include that US donors have organized a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds and hold them for Wildlife Rescue until they receive approval to receive them. I understand you may restrict listing the specific campaign but people can still email Nadeem for further information. Also, for donors from India, residing in India, Wildlife Rescue is a registered NGO in India and may receive donations directly from those in India.
7
Is there a way to donate to their organization?
67
Great story. Salute to these men. Well we may have to limit kite flying and restrict it to parks only. I hope it happens soon.
18
Great story about these men lovingly looking after these birds. I hope that they can find support to keep it going AND also have a good life with their families and beyond. And seriously, what is up with making the fatal glass thread? The strange damage that humankind is capable of and does without even much thought... Those who try to repair and look after animals and nature, like these folks in the article, are just wonderful, sweet souls IMHO. Best to them and all animal and environment rehab groups.
68
@SMSH
The thread, soaked in minute pieces of glass , is used as kites tangle and comptete with each other to cut each other off. So kite fliers compete to make the most sharp/deadly threads. I thought India had banned it.
9
Read the article. It clearly states that this type of string was banned in 2017 but it still widely sold.
20