Two tourists dead in separate paragliding accidents in Himachal

Shimla: Two tourists died in two separate paragliding accidents in Kangra and Kullu districts of Himachal Pradesh within a span of 24 hours. The tourists were from Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, police said on Saturday.

At the Indrunag paragliding site near Dharamshala, Bhavsar Khushi from Ahmedabad who was on a tandem flight died as she fell during take-off on Saturday evening. The pilot also fell with her and sustained injuries.

The pilot was sent to Tanda Medical College for treatment, ASP Kangra Vir Bahadur said.

All aspects are being investigated, he added.

In another incident, a 28-year-old tourist from Tamil Nadu died while the pilot sustained serious injuries while paragliding near the Garsa landing site in Kullu district on Friday evening.

The accident happened when one paraglider doing acrobatics accidentally hit another paraglider and one of them fell to the ground.

The accident occurred when they were 100 feet above the ground. While Jayash Ram succumbed to his injuries, pilot Ashwani Kumar sustained serious injuries and was sent to PGI Chandigarh for treatment.

Police said a case under sections 125 (negligent act endangering life of others) and 106 (causing death by negligence) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita have been registered and further investigations are underway.

Earlier on January 7, a tourist from Andhra Pradesh had died while paragliding at Raison, about 20 km from Manali in Kullu district, following which tourism authorities closed the Naga Bagh paragliding site after negligence was found in the preliminary inquiry.

As per preliminary inquiry, the operator was found to be negligent as the flight did not take off from the site identified by the tourism department. The license of the operator was also cancelled.