Women outnumber men at paragliding festival in Gujarat

Women participants outnumbered their male counterparts at the second edition of Paragliding Festival held at Saputara in Gujarat as the state celebrated another extravagant season of the adventure sport here.
The first edition of the paragliding extravaganza was held in 2011 where more than 1500 people took joyride on the paragliders. But the number of tourists during the second edition more than doubled as over 3,000 people went gliding on artificial wings amid the Sahyadri mountains in southern Gujarat.
Surprisingly, this season saw more woman than men who dared to go paragliding.
"Around 1,550 people went for paragliding during the first festival but this time over 3,000 people have taken the joyride in past 11-12 days," said Hariram Sawant, President Dang Zilla Paragliding Adventure Association that undertakes the paragliding activities here.

"Of the total number of people who went paragliding this season around 2,000 were women/girls and about 1,000-1,200 were men," said Rajendra Prabhakar Kalambe, Vice President of the association.
Alay Sheth had come from Surat with his wife, mother and 4-year-old daughter for the paragliding festival.

"My mother, daughter and wife all three went for the joyride on the paragliders. I thought they would find it difficult but it seems they enjoyed it more than I did," said Sheth.
Farooque Pathan, an official of Gujarat Tourism at the festival was high on spirit to witness increased participation of women and girls at the event.

"Women are very enthusiastic to try new things. Not only paragliding, they are also showing greater participation in other adventure sports like Rock-Climbing, Zip-Lining, Zorbing also. We have seen great rise in number of female tourists from Gujarat and outside also," Pathan told PTI.
"People are assured that these sports are safe to perform. Plus, the price is very competitive to what is charged at established places like Panchgani and Pune (in Maharshtra), or Manali and Bir (in Himachal Pradesh)," Pathan said.
Paragliding at Saputara began in 2010 and a year later the state government initiated Paragliding Festival here in a bid to promote the venue as hot spot for the adventure sport, following which the hill-station saw a rise in tourist foot-fall.

"I liked it very much. I went paragliding two-years ago in Australia for the first time. It seemed safe here as well so I enjoyed the adventure," said Varsha, a 55-year-old housewife from Godhra.
An initiative of Gujarat Tourism, the extravaganza was initially scheduled from December 21 to January 2 but with the event witnessing a greater tourist inflow, the state decided to extend the event till today.