Paragliding boom in Bir | The skies have limits

With enthusiasm filling the streets of Himachal Pradesh for the Asian edition of the 2024 Paragliding World Cup held from November 2 to 9, The Hindu visits Bir-Billing to find that commercialisation and overtourism are emerging problems. So far, accidents have not dented the flow of tourists and the expectation of flying high above the ground

Standing atop an unfinished building at Bir-Billing’s landing site in Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra district, hundreds of spectators gaze at the skies studded with paragliders. Away from the sight of potential gliders, a Polish man flying solo is stranded in the Dhauladhar hills, 184 km away. He collided with another paraglider mid-air. Now, he awaits a rescue helicopter; it will take at least two days to rescue him.

Biyasa Devi, 59, who lives a few minutes away from the landing site, recalls the time the adventure sport was taking root in Bir, now known as India’s ‘Paragliding capital’, which hosted the Asian edition of the 2024 Paragliding World Cup from November 2 to 9. The event was supported by the Paragliding World Cup Association and the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Department. “About 10-15 years ago, we would see around 10-15 people flying. Now, hundreds fly every day,” she says, as she watches at least 50 participants in the world cup land swiftly on the green maidan, which was once farmland.

Over the past three years, there have been at least 12 deaths related to paragliding, as per media reports. Despite being a sport with some risk, there are about 1,400 tourists taking tandem flights every day, estimates the Billing Paragliding Association (BPA), a group promoting the sport in India. A government official says there were around one lakh fliers last year, with a couple of deaths. “Accidents occur mostly among free fliers (flying solo) and not tandem paragliders,” the official says. To fly, adventurers reach the top of a take-off spot in Billing village, climb into a harness with a pilot, and run off a mountainside to take flight.

Devi’s son is now a pilot, a professional paraglider who takes tourists on tandem rides. “Pehle humein darr lagta tha upar dekh ke; lekin iske wajah se berozgari kam ho gayi hai (Earlier, I used to be scared to even look at paragliders in the sky, but it’s because of this that unemployment has reduced),” she says. Every family has at least one person employed in the paragliding ecosystem as paragliders, taxi drivers, or staff at cafes and hotels.

Bir booming

The village’s economy has grown over the years; so has the number of accidents. Days before the world cup, two paragliders, from the Czech Republic and Belgium, died after they collided into each other. Officials say they were free fliers and one of them died on the spot. The other died of a suspected heart attack in the hotel room that night. Research published in the journal, Wilderness & Environmental Medicine, says accidents usually occur from pilot error rather than equipment failure.

Suresh Thakur, a pilot and founding member of the BPA, says, “If there are 800 people flying, there may be two or three accidents. But the ratio is stable: as the number of riders increases, the number of accidents increases in that proportion.” He says one of the reasons for the collision was a change in ‘thermal’, a column of warm air that gliders ‘ride’ to stay in the air.

Over the past 15-20 years, Bir has turned into a hotspot for paragliders in India. There are 8,000 to 10,000 tourists in the village every day, with around 400 hotels catering to them, and around 300 cafes dotting the streets, according to BPA data.

A shop down the road from the landing site is selling T-shirts charting human evolution from a monkey to a person paragliding, with the hackneyed ‘Born to fly’ emblazoned on it. Hotels have makeshift paragliding table centrepieces; one almost touches the ceiling. Inbound and Indian tourists throng the street, and music from open-roof cafes, ranging from Bollywood covers to upbeat French songs, echo in the hills.

Taking wing

Bir’s paragliding boom coincided with 21-year-old Alisha Katoch’s birth and has defined her life. Living with her grandparents two minutes from the landing site, she began dreaming of flying on her own. She is the first woman pilot to represent India in (landing) Accuracy — one of the many sub-categories of paragliding — at an international event in Kazakhstan earlier this year. She is now being mentored free of cost at a training academy in Maharashtra. She comes back to Bir to practise in a familiar zone.

“When I first wanted to fly, everyone said it is not for girls. My first flight was with a local tandem pilot. I could not get enough. I started closely observing those flying around me,” she says, her eyes lighting up. Many like her say it took a while to convince their families to ‘allow’ them to learn the sport. Katoch did not participate in the world cup as she couldn’t afford the entry fee of ₹25,000.

Even as excitement and hustle fill up the BPA headquarters located around a kilometre from the landing site, Anurag Sharma, the association’s president, says there is heavy focus on rescue and retrieval. At least 50 ambulances are deployed across Bir, and two helicopters are on standby, he says. The deaths have not dented the enthusiasm.

Taking off for an experience

Each of the 94 pilots who participated in the world cup had a GPS tracker bound to a knee in case of an emergency. However, if a participant got stranded, it would take up to a day or two for the local administration to get in touch with their insurance company to deploy a helicopter.

For the world cup, a task committee designed the competition for the day, while the weather committee took stock of the wind, temperature, and rain. A board at the take-off site displayed the distance each pilot had to complete, the start and end timing, and the various touchpoints. On the sixth day, the competition had to be cancelled because of bad weather. Many pilots say when the weather is bad, they simply don’t fly.

Atop a hill, 18 km from the landing site, participants from 26 countries geared up for the challenge of the day at the take-off point. Yun Lin, a participant from the U.S., got ready for his task against the blue skies that meet the sun-drenched greens of pine trees halfway down. The participants then ran towards the edge of the hill, picked up momentum, and took off one by one. Lin completed the task in around three hours. The least time was taken by a participant who completed the 68-km stretch in two hours and seven minutes.

BPA had deployed six rescue teams comprising trained professionals across Bir; one at the landing site, one at the take-off point, three on the field, and one on standby. Meanwhile, at the take-off point, as licensed pilots geared up to fly, paragliding was shut for those who had come to experience it as a tandem ‘ride’. Krishika, 12, who travelled with her family from Gujarat for the experience of soaring through the air, was disappointed. She had just about ‘qualified’ to fly tandem; no one below 12 is permitted to fly.

Bir’s skies are generally populated with two types of paragliders: tourists who fly tandem with licensed pilots, and free fliers, mostly from abroad, who have paragliding licences in their respective countries, Sharma says. “Local pilots know the terrain. Free fliers unfamiliar with the area and terrain sometimes end up in Manali [160 km away], as a lot depends on the wind speed and thermal,” he says.

The making of a hub

The vast open valley and thermal are among the major factors that make Bir the ideal paragliding spot, says Sharma. Hang gliding, which involves flying a lightweight unpowered aircraft, began in 1984 in Bir. Paragliding was introduced by a paraglider from New Zealand in 1994. Since then, paragliders frequent Bir in two seasons: April to June, and October to November. In 2015, after Bir hosted its first Paragliding World Cup, it turned from a small hill village into a commercial hub for the sport, recall residents.

Sonam Togpa, 75, remembers a time Bir was “like any other rural area in India”, with most families engaged in farming and shepherding. “About 10 years ago, about an acre belonging to different people in the community was sold to the government for the landing site at an approximate cost of ₹11 lakh,” he says. The spot with the unfinished building was once land on which rice and wheat were grown, he says.

A group of friends from Switzerland, who refer to each other as a ‘paragliding family’, say even though they have mountains for paragliding in their home country, they picked Bir through online research. Where they come from, it is too cold for the sport at this time of the year. Most tourists understand the risk in the adventure sport, and the accidents have not eroded its attraction.

Deepak Thakur, 31, who works at a hotel and conducts tandem rides for tourists, says it can take up to five years to get a licence. “There are four levels of certification. The licences are finally given by the Tourism Department. We have to show them that we have done 100 solo flights,” he says, adding that guests are sometimes suspicious about licensing. Many come to Bir to “test their limits” and fly long distances, leading to accidents, he says.

Preventing overtourism

A tandem ride can cost between ₹2,000 and ₹3,000, and pilots keep around ₹1,000 per ride; the rest is given to the companies that own the equipment and have trained the pilots.

In peak season, there are four or five flights a day. Almost every hotel has a tie-up with a company, and the company offices are situated in the heart of Bir, around the landing site. The walls of the streets have posters of various paragliding competitions, even cycling competitions, and art and music festivals.

According to BPA, there are currently 380 registered pilots in Bir. However, locals estimate that there are around 800 pilots giving rides to people. V.S. Dhiman, Deputy Director of Tourism, Kangra district, says, “For free fliers, we accept certification from internationally-recognised associations. For tandem pilots, we have formed a technical committee to regulate licences.” He says all paragliding schools or companies that certify people for tandem rides at the moment have licences.

Dhiman says while the economy is dependent on it, there are measures to keep the numbers in check, such as deploying marshals to oversee all tandem activities. “We have to acknowledge that it is a high-risk sport, and accidents can be avoided but not ruled out,” he says. Other areas such as Manali and Shimla in Himachal Pradesh and Rishikesh in Uttarakhand, in the Himalayas, have also emerged as paragliding hotspots.

But there is something about Bir that brings paragliders back. For pilots training to get licences, longer distances are easier here because the winds are gentle and thermals aplenty. For others, it is the “overall vibe” of the place, the music, and the chai and Maggi points near the sunny take-off points. Katoch comes back because “it is my home and everyone loves going back to their villages, no matter how commercial it becomes”.

Published - November 09, 2024 09:23 pm IST