Tourism dept says no permission was granted
Pernem: The Mandrem police have arrested the owner of an adventure sports firm in connection with the deaths of a woman tourist and her instructor, who crashed into a valley while paragliding in Keri village in Pernem taluka on Saturday.
The police arrested the Hike ‘n’ Fly company owner Shekhar Raizada (42), who hails from Lucknow but presently resides at Bhandarwada, Paliem, for operating the paragliding business for which he has obtained no permission from the appropriate authority. The accused knowingly allowed the paragliding instructor to conduct operations without providing safety gears to tourists thus endangering people’s life, the police said.
The tourism department also said that no permission or approval had been granted for paragliding activities at the site.
“The activity was being conducted illegally and without any authorisation,” the department stated.
Sarpanch of Keri village panchayat Dharti Nagoji recalled that a month back the village body had passed a resolution to stop paragliding activities in the village.
The panchayat had forwarded the said resolution to the department concerned. However, no action was initiated, Nagoji said.
Expressing condolences to the families of the victims, the tourism department in an official statement said, “We are saddened by the tragic loss of lives in this incident and express our heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims. The department reiterates its commitment to ensuring that all tourism-related activities in the state adhere strictly to safety regulations and licensing norms. We urge tourists and operators to ensure that only licensed and authorised services are utilised to prevent such unfortunate incidents in the future. An inquiry will be conducted, and strict action will be taken against those found responsible for this unauthorised operations,” the statement read.
The accident occurred on Saturday when the 27-year-old tourist Shivani Dable from Pune and the 26-year-old paragliding instructor Suman Nepali fell to their deaths after the cable snapped mid-air.
Emergency services and the police struggled for hours to recover the bodies from the valley.
