Chennai tourist dies during paragliding in Kullu

MANALI: In yet another paragliding accident in Dobhi area of Kullu district in Himachal Pradesh, a 27-year-old tourist from Chennai was killed while the pilot was seriously injured on Monday.

The deceased, identified as Arvind, along with his wife was in Kullu-Manali on honeymoon trip .

According to sources, Arvind decided to take paragliding ride while his wife waited on the ground.

Soon after taking off, the paraglider crashed resulting into his death. Reports also say that Arvind’s safety belt was not properly tied and it malfunctioned during the flight resulting into his death after falling from a height into a gorge. Police are investigating the matter.

The pilot, who was seriously injured, was taken to Regional Hospital Kullu for treatment. Arvind's body was taken to Kullu for postmortem. Police officials said preliminary investigation shows that the safety belt was not properly tied due to which the accident occurred.

Though, paragliding is a major attraction for tourists in Kullu-Manali, but it has always remained a risky affair with large number of fatal accidents reported in past.

Chief minister Jai Ram Thakur said there was need to develop effective monitoring mechanism to ensure safety of paragliders. He said that only properly trained and experienced pilots would be allowed to operate.

A 23-year-old Mohali resident, Amandeep Singh Sodhi, was killed on May 18 this year after a paraglider crashed at Solang valley of Manali. While the incident brought to fore the lack of safety arrangements, his father Inderbir Singh Sobti had later moved an online petition to Prime Minister of India, Union ministry of tourism, chief minister of Himachal Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh tourism development corporation and the state tourism department to provide emergency healthcare and trauma care services at the paragliding site at Solang Valley, Manali.

He had also demanded that only trained pilots should be hired as most of them at the Solang valley are on contractual basis and do not have sufficient expertise to qualify to be a paraglider pilot.