Tura, Aug 28: The 1st edition of Kite Flying competition was held at ISBT Tura, West Garo Hill, which was jointly organised by the Wild Tour Garo Hills along with Tura Adventure Club.

The event comprised three categories: 
1. Solo Dogfight
2. Squad Dogfight (Max 5 members per squad)
3. Most creative Kites

Despite the bad weather in the morning the organisers opened the registration at 8am, and within an hour 60+ registration were completed. The registration closed around 10:30am with more than 100 registered competitors.

“I had thought around 50 would come to participate but 100+ was an unexpected number. After the registrations closed, many came to request to open registration,” a member of the organisers told Hub news.

The beginning of the solo dog fight started with the skies filled with colourful Kites, and quickly a massive crowd gathered to witness this event.

One hour later the last flying kite was declared as the winner.

The West Garo Hills DC, Swapnil Tembe, also reached the event as chief guest for the prize distribution and also witnessed the Squad Dogfight competition. He gave away the prize money to the winners.

Speaking to the media, he said ” I did not expect that the event would gather such participation and crowd. I haven’t seen many people flying kites in Garo hills. I am happy to see that people here love to fly kites as well as others watch them flying. I have asked them to make this event an annual event.”

Winners

Squad winner – Doreng squad,
Solo winner – Mesrang sangma,
Most creative kite – Bandasal sangma.

Photos credit: Salmitmat D. Marak