March 27, 2026
June Maliah’s Zero Hour mention on the urgent need for regulating adventure sports and amusement activities
Madam, there is an urgent need to oversee unsafe and unregulated adventure sports and amusement activities in India. There is no uniform licensing, equipment checks, guide training, or mandatory incident reporting across States. In Goa, a tourist and an instructor died in a paragliding crash in January 2025, with reports of an operator functioning illegally. In Uttarakhand, rafting mishaps and drownings around Rishikesh continue to be reported, including one in April 2025. Safety failures are also visible at local fairs. On 7 February 2026, an electric swing at the Surajkund International Crafts Mela in Haryana collapsed, killing a police inspector and injuring several others. Similar risks exist in ziplines, bungee platforms, scuba boats and ATV trails, where permissions are ad hoc and inspections are sporadic. The Ministry of Tourism’s Indian Adventure Tourism Guidelines, 2018 list minimum standards, but they are not a statutory enforcement mechanism. Madam, through you, I urge the Union Government to create a single statutory National Authority for Adventure Sports and Amusement Ride Safety to set baseline standards, maintain a national operator registry, mandate third-party safety audits and insurance, and run a compulsory incident-reporting database with annual public reporting. This will hopefully ensure minimum safety protection across States.
