A tourist from Maharashtra died after falling from a height while paragliding in Himachal Pradesh's Kullu district. Police have registered a case of negligence at Patlikuhal police station.
Manali: A 30-year-old tourist from Maharashtra fell and died while paragliding in Himachal Pradesh. The accident took place in Dobhi area of Kullu district. Eyewitnesses said that due to some technical snag during paragliding, a tourist fell straight from a height of hundreds of feet, killing him on the spot. The pilot of the paraglider escaped unhurt.
The deceased has been identified as Suraj Sanjay Shah (30) of Shirwal village in Satara district of Maharashtra. He had come to visit Manali with his friends. The tourist fell down possibly due to harness failure during flight.
Giving information about the accident, Kullu Superintendent of Police (SP) Gurdev Sharma said that the police received information that a person fell from a paraglider while flying at a high altitude in Dobhi area. Police have registered a case under Indian Penal Code sections 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 304A (causing death by negligence).
So far, many people have either died or got injured during tandem paragliding (double paragliding, one behind the other) in Himachal Pradesh. A 12-year-old boy from Bengaluru was killed in an accident near Bir Billing paragliding site. Taking strict cognizance of this, the Himachal Pradesh High Court had earlier this year banned paragliding and other adventure sports activities in the state.
The court had ordered the setting up of a technical committee to inspect the adventure activity sites. Most of the equipment was found to be not approved by the technical committee and the registration of many operators was faulty. Only those operators were allowed in April who could fulfil the required parameters.
