Adventure activities to resume in Kullu soon

Abhinav Vashisht

KULLU, February 21

Adventure activities, which have been discontinued for about a month due to non-renewal of required documents and licences during the Covid period, will restart in Kullu soon. A committee formed to monitor these activities has directed the operators not to function without proper documentation.

The licences and other related documents had not been renewed after the Covid outbreak and thus, all adventure activities in the district were discontinued on February 3.

Now, the technical committee has started inspecting and passing rafts and paragliders. The documents of the operators are being scrutinised and necessary instructions are being given in case of shortcomings. The committee is also conducting checks of the essential items involved in rafting.

Kullu SDM Vikas Shukla said paragliders and rafts were being inspected and their documents were being checked. Instructions were being given to the operators regarding the shortcomings which were being found. Some operators, whose documents were complete, had resumed operations today. The inspections of rafting operators will be completed by February 25 and after that, paragliding and other adventure sports operators will be scrutinised.

There are about 520 rafts, 500 paragliders, 300 snow scooters and about 300 mountain bikes and these provide direct and indirect employment to thousands of people. Kullu River Rafting Association president Shyam Attri said they had suffered immense losses due to the closure of sports activities. The technical committee had inspected the rafts and now, hopefully, they would be allowed to operate after fulfilling the formalities, he stated.

The committee will also suggest remedial steps to prevent mishaps, particularly in river rafting, rock-climbing, rappelling, river crossing, winter and snow sports like skiing, trekking, rock climbing, hot air ballooning, zorbing balls, rolling balls, water balls, bungee jumping or any other activities, as notified by the government, and submit compliance report to the High Court. The committee shall verify the emergency action plan for the particular adventure sport to include arrangements for emergency lift and evacuation of clients in case of mishap.