India

Hyderabad techie injures spine in Himachal paragliding mishap as honeymoon takes tragic turn

A 28-year-old  IT engineer working in Hyderabad was severely injured in a paragliding accident in Himachal’s Kullu valley as her honeymoon trip to the hill state turned into a tragedy.

Prisheena Gollamandala was brought to AIIMS, Delhi with severe spinal injuries and underwent a 3-hour surgery, according to a Times of India report.

Prisheena’s husband, Ajay, who is also an IT engineer, told the Times of India that she was reluctant to go for the paragliding but the instructor convinced her that there was nothing to fear about.

He blamed the instructor for the mishap as he did not take off from the fixed point and instead moved diagonally due to which Prisheena could not run properly and fell from a height of 15 feet. The parachute also did not open fully, he added.

In an earlier paragliding tragedy last December, a 30-year-old tourist from Maharashtra fell to his death from 300 feet in Kullu as the safety strap of the harness opened in mid-air. The instructor who landed safely was arrested for causing death by negligence.

In January last year, the Himachal Pradesh high court outlawed adventure sports, after a  12-year-old Bengaluru boy died in an accident near the Bir Billing paragliding site.

At the time, it was discovered that many operators’ registrations were invalid and that the majority of the equipment utilised by adventure sports operators did not meet the standards specified by the technical committee.

Only operators who could meet all the criteria were permitted to begin operations in April. Many local operators disregard the weather and wind speed while flying illegally from unapproved locations. Some also used old equipment as second-hand equipment is available at a cheaper price.

IN Bureau

Recent Posts

India committed $20 billion for infra development focused on enhancing multimodal logistics, port connectivity: Sarbananda Sonowal

Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal delivered the keynote speech at the India country session, India@NorShipping. At…

1 hour ago

India and Italy agree to strengthen ties in Industry 4.0, Technology, Automobiles and more

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said that India and Italy have…

2 hours ago

Trump-Musk feud gets nastier

By Reena Bhardwaj The public breakdown between US President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon…

2 hours ago

EAM Jaishankar, Uzbekistan counterpart Saidov discuss cooperation in connectivity, trade

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held a meeting with his Uzbekistan counterpart Bakhtiyor Saidov in…

2 hours ago

India and Kyrgyzstan’s BIT comes into force, strengthen economic ties

The new Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) between India and the Kyrgyz Republic comes into force…

15 hours ago

EAM Jaishankar meets Foreign Ministers of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan in Delhi

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met the Foreign Ministers of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan on…

17 hours ago