Team Herald
PANJIM: A day after a 26-year-old tourist from Pune and a 25-year-old paragliding pilot were killed during a paragliding adventure at Keri, it has come to light that paragliding activity was carried out illegally on the plateau with the Mandrem Police arresting Shekhar Raizada, the owner of Hike ‘N’ Fly company.
Following Saturday’s tragic incident which claimed the lives of Shivani Dabale, a tourist and Suman Nepali, paragliding pilot, the Tourism Department on Sunday clarified that no permission or approval was granted for paragliding activities on the Keri plateau and the activity conducted was illegal and without any authorisation.
“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 licencing norms,” the department said in a statement.
The department urged the tourists and operators to ensure that only licenced and authorised services are utilised to prevent such unfortunate incidents in the future.
The department also said that an inquiry will be conducted and strict action will be taken against those found responsible for the unauthorised operation.
It may be recalled that a paragliding adventure on Keri Plateau turned tragic when
Shivani and Suman were killed after one of the cables snapped midway as the duo came crashing down at Keri-Pernem plateau on Saturday evening.
Shivani along with her friends had come to Goa on a holiday. On Saturday evening, she decided to go paragliding.
Vilas Arolkar, a local resident said that the spot where the paragliding takes place is not suitable for such activities.
“Here the spot is such that if someone falls you will not find him. One must take precaution while engaging in paragliding activities. One should avail a licence to conduct such activities. But I think those who are in the business are non-Goans and do whatever they want,” he said.
Keri Sarpanch Dharati Nagoji said, “In a meeting we passed a resolution that paragliding is not required in the panchayat area. But any action was not taken after that. We do not know who is at fault. Now we will have to think what to do because we do not want such incidents to happen. Paragliding starts from somewhere else, it only lands in Keri panchayat. So there is not much role of Keri Panchayat here.”
Political analyst Trajano D’Mello said, “This term of Tourism Ministry is turning out to be the most horrible. We have never had such nightmarish experiences in the past. Be it touts beating and looting the tourists, roadside prostitution, violence at shacks leading to murder, boat mishaps, degradation of brand Goa, tragic and sudden fall in tourism, virtual wipe out of international tourists, sound pollution, taxi and airport cab operators’ issue and the list goes on and on.”
“Tourism policies and promotions are only meant for the gallery to appreciate. Just to recall we had Tourism ministers like Mickky Pacheco, Nilkanth Halarnkar and Manohar Azgaonkar in the recent past, they had minimal interference with the stakeholders' businesses and in comparison they did fairly better than the present minister,” D’Mello said.