by : Sanjay Rao

The Mumbai-Pune road is an arterial roadway leading out of the city tracing an ancient trade route that once connected the coast to the hinterland. Rock cut cave temples and hill fortresses along the route stand witness to the silk & spice bearing caravans accompanied by adventurous Greek merchants, Chinese travelers and Buddhist monks that braved the perils of wild animals and fierce tribal marauders, praying to goddess Tara to lead them out of danger.

Over the past few years a strange breed of adventure seekers have been plying this route. They too pray for a speedy completion of the Mumbai Pune Expressway that will whisk them to Kamshet (about 11 Km from Lonavla) in time to alight from their cars and attach a pair of " wings" on their backs and step off the hillside and fly in solitude as the evening sun casts a golden hue over the countryside below.

Consisting of an unlikely group of people; professionals, executives and businessmen from Bombay and Pune, these 'paragliding enthusiasts' wait patiently through the week gazing out of their office windows at a bird soaring on an odd thermal or a cloud passing by, reminding them of great flying conditions. This small but increasing number of paraglider pilots have been silently building up as the sport's popularity catches on in the state. According to Sandeep Dikshit, Equity Research Director with W.I.Carr Securities, it is "a fulfilling passion, relaxing hobby and completely in harmony with nature".
110 Km from Mumbai enroute to Pune, soon after Lonavla, lies Kamshet, the paragliding hub of the region. Here numerous favorable takeoff sites, great flying conditions and dramatic scenery provide a splendid backdrop to some excellent flying. Add to this the fact that flying is possible almost every day of the long season and you have the perfect paragliding destination. All these factors and more have converted this sleepy area into the paragliding stronghold in the Western Ghats!

The area is fast becoming a popular flying destination in the world paragliding community. The low hills, rocky terrain with endless flatlands around that once lent itself perfectly to guerilla type warfare today seems to be sculpted specially for paragliding. Pilots trudge uphill, spread their vibrant wings and fly effortlessly along the ridges, limited only by the weather, their skill & endurance. Around them the ruins of the Lohaghad & Visapur forts, and the Bhaja and Bhedsa cave temples that have stood sentinel for hundreds of years gaze upon the colorful canopies and their exhilarated occupants, silently watching as man's age old dream of free flight finally becomes a reality.

In India, paragliding is still a relatively new sport, introduced as late as 1991-92 by some visiting foreign pilots in the Kullu valley. In fact some of the sites in the big mountains are believed to constitute the best in the world. The Himalayas may have experienced the first wave of paragliding in India but in certain pockets in the western region the sport is fast catching on. In the scores of sites around Pune, Kamshet and the further reaches of the Western Ghats a few paragliding outfits have been operating in the last few years. Notable amongst them are Harley India and United India Paragliding at Pune, Omair in Panchgani and Nirvana Adventures in Kamshet.

Nirvana Adventures set up operations in Kamshet about three (3) years ago and have since then discovered a variety of flying sites within a 30 km. radius of their base at Kamshet suited for beginners training, hobby pilots and the more adventurous pilots. Say's Sanjay Rao of Nirvana Adventures " Our main emphasis is on teaching people how to fly and enjoy the purest form of free flight known to man".

Nirvana Adventures course pattern, flying operations and pilot rating is in accordance with the United States Hang Gliding Association's standard operating procedures and pilot proficiency systems. Residential courses running through the week and on weekends, great accomodation overlooking the serene Vadivali lake and a sizeable fraternity of recreational pilots - an amazing mix of people of varied age groups and diverse backgrounds is what one may expect to encounter on any given day of the season.

In July 2000 a team from Nirvana Adventures made a trip to Oludeniz, Turkey to fly at Babadag the 'Paragliding Mecca' of the world. This was the first Indian paragliding expedition of its kind till date. The purpose of the trip being to fly at one of the worlds best rated sites and to get a first hand experience of 'Safety in flight' which the site is famous for.

Back at Kamshet, the paragliding capital of the Western Ghats, the sport bridges the gap between tradition and modernity. At one end of the spectrum is the paraglider, an aircraft made of a combination of advanced aerodynamics with space age materials, and the other is the bullock cart,

an ancient mode of transportation on which the pilots sometimes hitch a ride to the takeoff site!

Sanjay M Rao, the prime mover of Nirvana Adventures, an Electronics & Communications engineer discovered his love for flying in 1996. After a year of active exposure to the sport and concentrated flying in the Western Ghats he set up Nirvana Adventures to promote the sport in the western region. He concentrated his efforts on infrastructure development and site exploration and has been instrumental in discovering a number of sites in the vicinity of Kamshet. Since then Nirvana Adventures has successfully carried out a number of basic and intermediate courses from a very scenic location at Kamshet and run periodic training operations in Bangalore and Goa.

Affiliations and networking with pilots and clubs abroad have led to an ongoing exchange program has enabled him to open the region to the international pilot community and helped him keep in touch with the latest developments in the sport around the world.