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Journalism of Courage
As he serves hot tea to Russian and Israeli solo paragliders scattered in and around his kuchcha shop, ‘Chachu Chai’, on an uninhabited hill in Billing in Himachal Pradesh, Puran Chand, 71, displays a near-encyclopaedic knowledge of the region’s paragliding history.
“Neil Kinnear (England) and Keith Necols (the US) arrived here with their hang glider over 40 years ago. On their second trip in 1980, Kinnear, a teacher in a Dharamshala school, encouraged me to open a tea stall on the hill for them. In 1984, the Hang-Gliding World Cup was held in Bir-Billing. Forty-three pilots from 13 countries participated in it. In 1986, Bruce Milles (New Zealand) brought paragliding to Billing. My father attended some paragliding expeditions with him,” says Puran, who ends up staying back in his shop on most nights.
While hang gliding didn’t succeed in Kangra district’s Bir-Billing “because it requires a large landing area to prevent injuries”, a wizened Puran says paragliding is still going strong.
He is not wrong. The second-edition of the Paragliding World Cup Association Asian Tour-2024 is on in Bir-Billing from November 2. Ninety-four paragliders from 26 countries, including 32 from India, are participating in the event, which ends on November 9. The first edition of the event was held in 2015. Nearly 130 pilots from 35 countries had competed then.
Over the past three decades, Bir-Billing has made a name for itself as a “paraglider paradise” due to its strong, stable air currents that help lift the structure easily and allow paragliders to fly over 50 km to Dharamshala and Manali. The area also holds the distinction of being one of Asia’s highest paragliding sites.
Nearly 16 km downhill from Billing — which just has four-five shops, no houses and at least five take-off points from two ridges — lies Bir village, which has just one reserved landing site, a vast plain ground that technically falls under the nearby Chaugan village.
Suresh Thakur, pradhan, Bir panchayat, says the landing site is still called Bir because “everything associated with the adventure sport is located in the village”.
In Bir, home to 190 families as per the 2011 Census, half-a-dozen registered firms operated by locals offer tandem and solo paragliding, besides equipment for rent. Every street here has a hotel or a hostel, and all houses double as homestays. Each family in the village has at least one licensed paragliding pilot.
Kuldeep Thakur, who owns a registered paragliding firm and is the president of the Bir Paragliding Pilot Union, says Bir and its neighbouring Chaugan, Gunehar and Kyuri villages have “over 300 hotels and homestays”.
Paragliding has also upped the price of land here. Puran says one kanal (nearly 506 square metres) in the neighbouring Raj Guntha village was offered to him for just Rs 500 in 1999. “That land now costs approximately Rs 50 lakh. I regret not buying it then. In Bir village, one kanal costs nearly Rs 60 lakh at present,” he says.
At the take-off site in Billing, Anil Bhangalia, 28, a licensed tandem flight pilot, looks on as a colleague takes off with a Maharashtra client. Anil, who has studied till Class 12, says his father moved from the remote Bhangal village in the Dhauladhar range to Bir village almost three decades ago in hopes of a “better life”.
With paragliding on in Bir for nearly 10 months a year, except during the monsoon months of July and September, Anil says the adventure sport has fulfilled that hope. An employee with a travel company, he gets a commission of nearly Rs 800 for each tandem flight, for which his employer charges a customer around Rs 3,000.
“The youth may prefer an Army job or to study in big cities, but for most locals like me, paragliding has brought everything to Bir — tourists, employment and opportunities,” he says, adding that Bir has nearly 350 licensed paraglider pilots.
“We all get our permits from the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Department Corporation (HPTDC). A technical team from Manali-based Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports (ABVIMAS) works with the HPTDC to issue these licences for Rs 1,500 each. The licence has to be renewed every three years,” he adds.
Russia-born German paraglider Leonid Savintsev, who is participating in the ongoing event, has been paragliding in Bir-Billing since last month. Despite the snow-laden Dhauladhar range in the background and the wide area “making for the perfect sky for cross-country flights”, Leonid says more reserved landing sites for paragliders are required since traffic in the sky here has been “increasing with each passing moment”. While flagging off the event on November 2, HPTDC chairperson R S Bali had announced that Rs 60 lakh would be allotted to develop a landing site in Bir.
Manali-based paraglider Roshan Lal Thakur believes that paragliding in Bir-Billing can touch “new heights” if authorities invest in infrastructure. “Foreign paragliders are always in search of a better flying experience. Their arrival has increased manifold at Bir-Billing over the last decade. Flying clubs across the world encourage paragliding students to visit Bir-Billing. At times, there are over 80 paragliders, including solo-flyers and cross-country pilots, in the sky at the same time, increasing chances of a mid-air collision,” says Roshan, who famously took a tandem flight with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 1997, while the latter was on a tour of Solang, another paragliding site in the state.
Roshan is not wrong. Two foreign nationals died in paragliding-related accidents in Kangra district last month. Over the past two years, 10 persons have been killed in such incidents in the hill state, with Bir-Billing accounting for most fatalities.
The rise in paraglider traffic has over the last few years led to an increase in distress calls and rescue requests by stranded paragliders, says ABVIMAS director Avinash Negi.
“Mid-air collisions always occur due to human negligence. While more paragliders are great for the local economy, Bir-Billing will need to keep up its standards. Though the state tourism department has deployed marshals at all take-off sites in Billing, more government schools are needed to train young pilots. Although ABVIMAS offers paragliding and aero sports courses, the seats are limited. Regulated coaching schools in the state, especially in Bir, will ensure that livelihoods remain unaffected,” he says.
Meanwhile, to ensure that “not everyone is paragliding at the same time”, locals have introduced other adventure activities in the area. “We have started mountain cycling, motorbiking, etc., to reduce stress on the sky,” says Anurag Sharma, the president of the Billing Paragliding Association.
In the midst of these suggestions, the weather-beaten Puran has a simple wish — electricity. While the Bir landing site offers all modern facilities, in Billing, where hundreds of paragliders take-off each day, electricity is yet to make its debut. “I want electricity via underground cables in Billing. Transmission towers and tall poles with wires will be fatal for paragliders and ruin Bir-Billing.”
