mangalore it was a rare visual for mangaloreans in the skies over arabian sea on panambur beach on saturday instead of birds teddy bears octopuses manta ray fishes batman frogs tigers and baby tigers were flying on the skies the team mangalores annual mrplongc international kite festival literally made the birds disappear from the skies to make way for huge inflatable animals circles and triangles delta kites the twoday event witnessed participation from seven countries other than india teams from france indonesia netherlands kuwait uk lebanon and south korea brought smile on the faces of hundreds of visitors participants from lebanon rami al khal and sami sayegh grabbed the attention of the crowd by flying two duck kites one black and another white rami who has made kite flying a hobby for the past 45 years told sunday times of india that panambur beach was suitable for kite flying the flow of wind here is perfect we can fly kites very easily he said adding that he always preferred kites of light weight to make the flying smooth rami who is visiting india for the sixth time thanked team mangalore he said it is not just a compliment i really appreciate the organizers because they have done a great job march herzog member of manja club of france has brought three kites including a special one titled revolution to the fest i belong to manja club but did not bring manja kites fighter kites here as it is not allowed we organize manja kite festival in september every year in france flyers from across the world participate in the fest he said herzog is visiting mangalore for the third time i like people here what is more important is the steady wind which is favourable for kite flying march said prithviraj umesh assistant professor in applied mechanics and hydraulics department of nitk surathkal participated in the event with his innovative kite fixed with a camera he calls it mugila kannu eye of the sky prithviraj said that the 12 mp canon 450 series camera can capture picture from 15 kms distance the pan and tilt camera fitted to the kite can be controlled from the ground using hand held remote control device he added though the kites started hitting the skies from 230 pm onwards the crowd started making to the beach only after 5 pm panambur beach tourism development project ceo yatish baikampady said the response was amazing as always on a normal saturday the crowd on the beach is about 10000 today we had about 40000 visitors he said he expected the sunday crowd to cross one lakh additional parking slots have been created on the beach to handle the addition rush we are expecting around 2000 vehicles on sunday most people will depend on public transport system as they know about the rush to the festival he added