Woman fractures spine during ropes course at adventure camp

A 26-year-old woman broke her back during a ropes course as the safety harness snapped at the nature adventure camp in Kanakapura on the southern outskirts of Bengaluru. The camp, however, claimed the harness didn't snap and that she slipped and fell down. It accused her of blackmail.

Somya Jain Gupta fell 12 feet down after hanging in midair from the safety harness for about 10 minutes at the Life Tree Adventure Camps in Hanumanahalli. She ended up with two fractured vertebrae and is scheduled to undergo surgery at a hospital on Sarjapur Road, her husband Divyansh Gupta told DH.

Divyansh claimed there were no helpers to rescue his wife even as she hung in midair. "There was no stretcher at the camp. No medical expert. The helpers were all teenage villagers with no knowledge of moving the injured," he stated in the complaint filed at the Kanakapura rural police station.

The couple, of Kadubeesanahalli, had booked the adventure activity through Thrillophillia, a private operator, for Saturday and Sunday.

'Blackmailing tactics'

Manjunath M, the in-charge at the camp, said they used safety harnesses and equipment of international standards. "The woman was unable to perform the activity and was blocking the way of others. She was sitting on the ropes course for some time with the safety harness on. Our staff used a metal structure to help her come down, but she slipped and fell two to three feet down," he told this newspaper.

Another staffer claimed the couple was using the incident to "blackmail" the camp owners for a compensation of Rs 15 lakh.