- Your cart is empty
- Continue shopping
-
admin
- Posted on
- Categories:Travel
- 0 comments
Excitement or threat? India’s burgeoning adventure tourism faces fatal security gapsA pune resident in Goa village in Keri village to have a scoop flight in a cotton in January. A few minutes later, he and his Nepali instructor plunged into a gorge of Midair, rope after rope. Both were killed.
Slope alone claimed seven lives in Kullu and Kangra, three of which were fatal, with three deaths occurring in a month. In the last five years, Himachal Pradesh has claimed the lead in the number of these tragedies, with around 30 deaths and one dispatch due to accidents on the slopes, due to untrained pilots or faulty equipment.
In Manali, a 12-year-old girl recently fell 30 feet from a zipline.
In Bhunter, Himachal Pradesh, a Malayali tourist died when a loaded raft overturned. The operator did not have a valid license.
Stories like these are excitingly becoming a daily occurrence. Leading high-altitude treks in the Himalayas at Rishikesh in Rishikesh, India is grappling with a safety crisis in Indian adventure sports.
According to the Adventure Tour Operators Association of India, market after pandemic is happening as the pandemic increases. The adventure tourism market is estimated to be worth USD 16.7 billion in 2024, compared to USD 86 billion annually by 2033, according to IMARC Group, according to IMARC Group.
With money and demand increasing, guards, training, equipment and enforcement are often not dangerous. How much blood must be spilled before things change?
Security gap
The Tourism Union Ministry of Tourism offers guidelines for operators to register activities such as trekking, mountaineering, rafting and aero sports, but compliance is voluntary. “There is no compulsory licensing system in India. Anyone can register a company and start promoting adventure travel,” he says
Arshdeep Anand, Vice President, Atoai. It allows unscrupulous operators to enter the market without even meeting basic security norms.
In Maharashtra, unregulated ziplining and rappelling, gorges and waterfalls like Harihar, Duke’s Cape and Kalu Falls, snow falls without raising alarm among forest and tourism authorities. These are marketed as safe and family friendly, until something goes wrong.
When someone builds a parachute, the problem starts at the licensing stage. “Himachal tourism issues licenses but the officials themselves do not understand the prerequisites,” he said.
The lack of a technical body to evaluate trainers varies wildly between operators in quality. Other adventure sports also have licensing inconsistencies. Rakesh Singh Rawat, who runs braided hot air balloon rides in Corbett National Park, says there are no guidelines for hot air ballooning sealed by the relevant authorities.
In such cases, safety standards are left entirely at the discretion of an operator.
The most dangerous risk comes from the person who turns you into a trailer. According to the guidelines, the instructors should have active certifications from institutes like Nehru Mountaineering (NIM) or Indian Institute of Skiing and Mountaineering (IIC IIC), along with first aid and rescue.
But in much of India, these remain aspirations.
It’s too good to be true
In Rishikesh earlier this year, this reporter entered a rafting site near Shivpuri and spoke with an operator. A deal? A full raft for Rs 3,000, up from Rs 1,500-2,000 per person charged by most licensed companies. The life jackets did not fit properly: some hung loosely around the chest, others were difficult to breathe, even the hideous rafters even an ill-fitting jacket, not worth buying.
In Dhikuli, Uttarakhand, for hot air balloons?
Just meters away, the same operator sold river rafting packages and a children’s “Playzone” – a climbing wall with splash paint, an obstacle course with broken ropes and a wheel drive in the wind. A one-stop adventure shop with no sign of specialist training or safety checks.
It’s only when things go wrong that people sit and worry.
In July, Satish Rajeshbhai, a 25-year-old tourist from Ahmedabad, died when his Tandem Glider failed to take off from Indrunag in Dharamshala. The pilot, badly injured, survived. Officials have confirmed that the launch pad is off-limits until September 15, when the slope is banned.
In a market where tourists bargain and aggregator portals promote the cheapest deals, the temptation to cut corners is constant.
Many tourists do not see the hidden costs of the “shooting deal”. Can they get a raft for bargain hunters?
“Safety is paramount,” says Pranav Kukret of Delhi-based Treks N Rapids. “But it can start without bending to competition, commercial pressures or smooth customers, security costs.”
Even the big ticket activities are underwhelming. “Offering a high-priced and high-profile activity like ballooning at a very low price will only compromise safety,” Rawat said. Experienced pilot costs? 45,000-75,000 per month, but many operators prefer cheaper, less skilled workers – especially when the sport is in season and the balloon sits idle for months.
Taxes add another twist. With a GST of 18 percent, the margins are slim. For some, it encourages an informal sector where bills are not drawn up, gear is not deducted, and the risk is silently passed on to the customer.
The bottom line: Few operators waste time on training, inspections, and equipment records, while others survive to survive.
Man and gear
A common thread in many accidents is human error: hidden or absent operators taking liberties in life. “Skydiving training, 150 hours in the air for two years, can it be sponsored? 4-5 lakh,” says Thakur. “But many get monthly training for just Rs 15,000-20,000 and join operator companies with very basic flying experience and no knowledge of emergencies.”
Vinod Jacob, MDNAR Adventures, a Kerala-based adventure sports operator, has set the bar high: “We require instructors with advanced mountaineering certificates (AMC) and unrecognized short-term local courses.”
Sanjay Rao of Fly Nirvana, a one-stop school in Maharashtra, says, “Our beginner’s course includes ground work, classroom sessions, simulator training and solo flights. No one leaves a hill without completing each phase safely.” Patience and respect for the elements”.
Then there’s gear. In a sport where a single rope, harness or fender can decide life or death, there’s a difference between certified gear and a cheap knockoff.
Kukreti says: “There is nothing to certify a certified Chinese gear certificate.”
Many operators use second-hand or uncertified gear, often imported from Nepal and Australia, among others. “Nepalese adventure sports facility standards are similar to European standards. India does not have such a standard,” says Thakur. Gear may be safe at first, but years of repeated use can turn it into a liability.
Munnar Adventures inspects every helmet, harness and carabiner before use and maintains a written inspection report written by a team leader.
SkyHigh India, the country’s only US Parachute Association (USPA) accredited skydiver, stores its parachutes according to international protocols, equipment from the US, Skyhigh India founder Rudra Bhanu Solanu. “Instructors each have a minimum of 2,500 jumps to their name and our ground crew are trained in jump coordination, aircraft safety and emergency procedures,” Solanki said.
As Kukreti puts it bluntly: “Adventure sports are not a selfie activity. It can be a matter of life and death. You get what you pay for.”
The lack of a uniform, enforceable regulatory framework is a reason for ATOAI to lobby for a model right for adventure tourism, a model right to international standards.
In New Zealand, every double cord and raft has been tested, tested and retested under the government’s adventure activities regulations. In Interlaken, Switzerland, glider pilots cannot fly commercially without a federal license and insurance.
In the mountaineer Mecca of France, France, Europe, the guides must train for years at the École Nationale de ski et d’alpinisme (ensa) before even starting a glacier up from a beginner. Whistler, Canada, operators are inspected annually and face heavy penalties if gear inspections are not documented to the last Carabiner. Even Dubai’s desert safari has strict driver’s license and vehicle safety checks.
Adventure sports will never be without risk, but in India, the line between excitement and danger often comes down to options before tourists get inside.
For now, the burden is on asking the right questions for the unjust, possibly unjust, thrill-seekers:
- Is the operator recognized by the authorities?
- Are they certified trainers with experienced working hours?
- Does the gear bear UIAA, CE or Indian Standards (BIS) or BIS certification marks and when was it last inspected?
- Are there safety briefings before each activity?
ATOAI’s Anand, the next step should be a model right for adventure tourism, licensing, standardization for standardization and setting minimum qualifications for instructors. Yakub of Munnar Adventures also calls “random inspections, mandatory incident reporting and mandatory daily safety records”.
In adventure sports, the real risk is not the free fall, but the blind leap of faith before it.
Check for red flags
- A rock-bottom deal: If the price sounds too good to be true, it probably is
- No proof of training: Your guide should be certified and certified by recognized bodies like NIM, iEm ILS, USPA. If they miss a question about majors, walk away.
- Shable, mismatched gear: Uiaa, CE or BIS, look for the BIS markings on helmets, harnesses, life jackets and ropes. Avoid operators using faded, ill-fitting or clearly second-hand gear.
- No safety briefing: Turn away if you rush into a glider or glider without a safety demo, instruction or proper inspection before the activity
- Missing licenses or insurance: Ask if the operator is recognized by the Ministry of Tourism / State Organization and if the activity is insured. If not, you’re on your own in the event of an accident.
- Setting Up Jack-Trade Businesses: Rafting, ziplining and hot-air ballooning operators can be thinly spread out, protecting all at once, with safety experts. Double everything.
