Look before you leap

As Kajaria and his ‘pilot’ — who steers the paraglider — take a few long strides and begin to ‘fly’, the clouds get darker. It might rain soon. It’s still 20 minutes before landing.

Located on the foothills of the Himalayas, Bir-Billing’s terrain is apt for paragliding. Popularly known as ‘Parindon Ki Nagri (the town of birds)’, it hosted the Paragliding World Cup in 2015, sees nearly 350-400 tourists each day during peak season, and is considered one of “safest” paragliding sites in the country.

Landing point of paragliders at Chogan (Express Photo by Gurmeet Singh)

However, that is now under question following a series of incidents. On March 9, a foreign national on a solo flight was stuck for three days in the jungles of Utrala after a crash. Seven days later, a passenger on a tandem flight was left stuck for eight hours in Bir jungles after the pilot allegedly flew in unfavourable weather. The local sub-divisional magistrate recommended cancellation of licences of seven pilot who flew “despite bad weather” that day.

More recently, on April 7, nearly 150 km from Bir-Billing, a pilot and his client from Kerala died in a crash at Dobhi in Kullu.

Apart from Bir-Billing, Dobhi, Marhi, Solang, Talogi, Majhach in Kullu, Indrunath in Dharamshala and Bilaspur in Mandi are among the other sites notified by the Himachal Tourism Department for paragliding. According to a ‘senior’ local pilot, in the past one year, several such incidents have happened in these parts, including crash landings to poor take-offs, resulting in people sustaining injuries. Many, he says, went unreported.

Experts blame the loopholes in the licensing process of pilots, that do not match international standards, for the recent accidents. Politicians heading paragliding associations, the interference of local travel agents, lack of staff to check violation of flying rules and poor rescue infrastructure in case of emergencies, have added to the problems.

Under the rules, a pilot or a guide “with at least five years of experience in the field” can get a licence for aero sports activities, but there is little clarity over qualifications required to be a paragliding pilot. (Express Photo by Gurmeet Singh)

Both solo paragliders, including foreign nationals, and tandem pilots need a permit/licence from the District Tourism Development Office (DTDO), as per the Himachal Pradesh Aero Sports Rules, 2002.

Under the rules, a pilot or a guide “with at least five years of experience in the field” can get a licence for aero sports activities, but there is little clarity over qualifications required to be a paragliding pilot.

Also, while a technical committee under the state director of tourism and the director of Mountaineering Institute, Manali, has to ‘test’ pilots before handing them licences, questions have been raised over the authenticity of the log books in which pilots are required to record their flying hours.

These log books, says a source, in which the pilots need to record at least 300 hours of flying experience for a licence, are verified by local association members with travel agents as ‘witnesses’. “They are mostly ‘managed’,” adds the source. The associations then recommend these pilots to the District Tourism Development Office (DTDO), the final license issuing authority.

“Five years of experience or 300 flying hours is no criteria to judge a pilot’s skills. The state’s rules are nowhere close to what the World Air Sports Federation, Switzerland (registered as Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, FAI- the world governing body for aero sports) has specified,” says Gurpreet Singh Dhindsa, a P5 level pilot from the British Hand Gliding and Paragliding Association, UK.

Training levels for paragliding pilots, as certified by the World Air Sports Federation, range from P1 to P5, with the P4 level being the minimum requirement to start tandem commercial flights, explains Dhindsa.

Many of the ‘pilots’ here say they are being “exploited” by associations and travel agents “despite us putting our lives at risk”. (Express Photo by Gurmeet Singh)

“Even after P4, it can take two-three years to become an able tandem pilot. There are theory classes, exams, air traffic lessons and emergency rescue management lessons during training. But the Himachal rules do not even talk about qualification levels. Local boys here become tandem pilots in a few months or even weeks,” adds the 53-year-old.

There are 261 registered pilots in Bir-Billing; 150 in Kullu and Manali; and 23 in Indrunath. The training of paragliding pilots in these parts is largely informal, with only a few centres, such as Dhindsa’s, offering courses. But such centres are out of reach of the local youth because of their high fees. Aspiring pilots simply practice for a few years, then apply for licences.

The heads of the two paragliding associations of Bir-Billing, despite their political differences, admit that the entire system is in a “mess”.

“Jiska jab mann karta hai udd jaata hai kahin se bhi (People fly whenever and from wherever they want to),” complains Sudhir Sharma, president of the Paragliding Billing Association (PBA). The former Congress MLA argues that his association only “recommends credible pilots”. “The government cannot put the blame on us. They need to appoint staff to check violations,” he says, adding, “We started the association in 2003 to promote paragliding as a sport but now commercial tandem flights have taken over.”

The PBA has now decided not to recommend pilots for licence renewal. “It is not our responsibility to check their log-books but of the government,” association director Anurag Sharma points out.

BJP leader Satish Abrol, the head of the other paragliding association, Billing Valley Aero Sports Society, also admits that “rules that do not specify qualification for pilots need an overhaul”, but adds that “at least Himachal has rules for tandem paragliding whereas there are none at the national level.”

Paraglider carries tandem pilot with tourist fly down from Biling to landing point at the Chogan of Bir- Biling paragliding site in Kangra. (Express Photo by Gurmeet Singh)

Far away from the politics of associations, in the villages of Keori and Chogan (passengers land here after taking off from Billing), where there is a ‘paraglider in every home’, the sport has been both a source of income and a passion among the youth. The streets of the scenic Chogan and Keori villages are lined with cafes and the sky dotted with parachutes in bright hues. Young men, some as young as 14-15, can be seen practising paragliding. Recently, two local girls also joined them.

Many of the ‘pilots’ here say they are being “exploited” by associations and travel agents “despite us putting our lives at risk”.

“I started paragliding at the age of 14. Those who work individually get Rs 2,000-2,500 per client but those working under contractors and agents are exploited. They get Rs 500-600 per flight. The equipment comes for Rs 3.5 to 4 lakh. We do not even get loans to buy it so boys have to work under contractors who buy for them,” says Yash Paul, who has been conducting tandem flights for the past nine years.

The 24-year-old also points out the risks of the profession, with “no life insurance provided by the government”. “Whenever there is an accident, we are blamed. But there are several other factors that lead to accidents — bad weather, sudden change in wind direction, leg posture of the passenger while taking off and landing etc.,” he says, admitting that some “greedy” pilots fly in bad weather and some perform stunts without the client’s permission. “That is wrong,” he says.

The district tourism development officer of Kangra, under which Bir-Billing falls, Madhu Chaudhary, also says that while they are looking at amending the rules, many of the accidents in the past year have been due to “natural conditions like weather and wind”.

Like the April 7 accident, which Bhag Chand Negi, the Kullu district tourism development officer, says was not the pilot’s fault. “The pilot had a licence. It happened due to sudden change in wind direction,” he says.

But the mishap, which was reported widely, did alarm authorities in Kullu, prompting them to review licences of all tandem pilots. “They will be undergoing a test again and, if found incompetent, their licenses will be cancelled,” says Yunus, the deputy commissioner of Kullu.

Back in Bir-Billing, for 37-year-old Julie, a US national, none of this matters. “What is an adventure without any risk? It is better to die while flying like a bird,” she says, taking off.