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Manali (HP), Dec 27: A 30-year-old tourist from Maharashtra fell to his death during paragliding in the Dobhi area of Kullu district on Saturday. According to eyewitnesses, the victim fell hundreds of feet possibly due to harness failure during a tandem flight. While the tourist died on the spot, the pilot of the paraglider was safe.
The victim was identified as Suraj Sanjay Shah (30) of Shirval village in Maharashtra's Satara district. He was visiting Manali with his friends.
Superintendent of Police, Kullu, Gurdev Sharma said on Sunday that police received information that a person had fallen from a paraglider that was flying at a very high altitude in the Dobhi area.
"The pilot is safe, but the passenger (tourist) succumbed to injuries on the spot," he said, "A case of negligence act has been registered under sections 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 304A (causing death by negligence) of the IPC Act," the SP said.
A number of people have either died or sustained injuries during tandem paragliding in Himachal Pradesh. Paragliding and all other adventure sports activities in the state were banned by the Himachal Pradesh High court in January this year after taking strict note of the death of a 12-year-old boy from Bengaluru due to an accident near Bir Billing paragliding site.
The court had ordered the setting up of a technical committee to inspect the adventure activity sites. Most of the equipment was found to be not approved by the technical committee and the registration of many operators was faulty. Only those operators were allowed in April who could fulfil the required parameters.
