Ban on adventure sports in Uttarakhand likely to be revoked soon

The Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board is expecting that the ban on adventure sports might soon be revoked, probably before September. It comes in wake of the state cabinet giving green signal to new rules and regulations in reference to adventure spots and making paragliding and rafting safer in the hill state.

The new policy mandates tourism department to give nod for allocating land, which comes under government and forest department, on riverbanks where activities like rafting are not being conducted currently. As per the new policy, the rafting operators will be required to display all the required information like fares on websites and brochures. Further, tourists under the influence of alcohol will not be allowed to go for rafting.
Also the cabinet has approved the amendments to policies related to rafting. As per the new policies, vehicles carrying rafts will not be allowed within 100 m of the river bank. To facilitate entry and exit of the rafts, a technical committee will ensure the task of identifying spots on both the sides of bank.
As per the new rules formulated for paragliding and aero sports, it has now become mandatory to get a minimum 100 hours of flying experience to become a tandem pilot, whereas the chief trainer must have 200 hours of flying experience. However, the existing paragliding pilots and operators will be given two years to qualify themselves.
The new set of policies also mandates every paragliding operator to set up an office and display the rates appropriately. Standard for uniforms, age limit and safety equipment have also been set.

Paragliding operators have, however, welcomed the rules. The operators also said that the rules have been made taking into consideration their suggestions and that the state is serious in sustaining this sport in the long run.
Uttarakhand in fact has the potential to generate INR 200 crore every year just from paragliding, only if steps are taken at the right time and right place.