Himalaya » Hang Gliding

Hang-gliding came to India in the early 1980s and slowly grew in popularity, until two fatal accidents at the Billing Nationals in 1989 all but grounded the sport. Hang-gliding has now given way to paragliding, now the fastest growing aerosport in In­dia, and there are now some 60 qualified pilots in the country. High-quality equip­ment is available from a handful of opera­tors, the most prominent of which are the Jaini brothers — the pioneers of paragliding in India — who run Wild Ven­tures,

Flying amongst the awesome Himalayan mountains is undoubtedly the main attraction for paragliders in India. There are several closely clustered launch­ing pads in Himachal Pradesh — in the low foothills at Nalagarh or Bilaspur or deeper in the mountains near Manali. Here you take off at Golaba, just below the spec­tacular snow-covered Rohtang Pass (4426m) to land on cultivated fields at Kothi. Billing, in the adjacent Kangra val­ley, is India’s best known venue and has been the site for sporadic national cham­pionships since 1989. A road leads to the take-off run which is at 2787m and has a backdrop of snow-clad mountains. Re­trieval is via a circuitous route that can take four hours to travel. Most other launch sites in the Himalaya are difficult to access and best combined with a trek or jeep safari.