Chennai tourist dies in paragliding mishap

Our Correspondent

KULLU, NOVEMBER 18

A tourist from Chennai was killed during paragliding near Dobhi in Manali subdivision of this district today.

Kullu SP Gaurav Singh said Arvind (27) from Chennai fell while paragliding as the harness loosened and he died on the spot.

The SP said the reveller decided to take a joyride and boarded a paraglider for tandem flight. The pilot was also injured during landing and admitted to a Kullu hospital. The pilot reportedly had a valid licence to conduct tandem flying.

A case has been registered and further investigations are underway.

The incident has again raised a question mark on the safety and security of the tourists who take up adventure activities like river rafting, river crossing, mountaineering and paragliding in this hill station. Accidents occur due to lack of expertise and carelessness on the part of operators.

A technical committee issues licences to pilots to conduct tandem flying as per norms. However, in the absence of strict vigilance, operators sometimes ignore the norms and employ pilots without verifying valid licence.

Even while annual checking of equipment, guides and pilots is done for availing licenses to carry out adventure sports, many operators were allegedly operating without valid licence.

A local pilot alleged that some of the pilots were not qualified and lack expertise, leading to accidents.

The administration and tourism department has failed to chalk out plans for the associations associated with adventure sports. Those associated with the tourism industry stated that constant vigil by technical experts in the areas where such adventure activities were carried out was a must to prevent such mishaps.