Adventure sports or extreme sports are activities undertaken through the medium of Land, Water and Air and perceived as involving a high degree of risk. These activities often involve speed, height, a high level of physical exertion and highly specialized gear. Details of adventure sports popular in the world are:
(i) Land Based: Mountaineering, Trekking, Rock Climbing, Sport Climbing, Camping, Snow Skiing, Mountain Biking and Zipline.
(ii) Air Based: Paragliding, Powered Hang gliding, Parasailing, Sky Diving/Parachuting and Hot Air Ballooning.
(iii) Water Based: White Water: Rafting, Kayaking and Canoeing. Still water (Pond/Lakes): Canoeing, Water/Jet Skiing, Kayaking, Sailing and Rowing.
Sea/Oceans: Windsurfing, Sailing, Yachting, Scuba Diving and Deep Sea Diving.
- Following adventure sports are popular in India
(i) Land Based: Mountaineering, Trekking, Rock Climbing, Sport Climbing, Snow Skiing and Mountain Biking.
(ii) Air Based: Paragliding, Parasailing and Sky Diving/Parachuting.
(iii) Water based: White Water: Rafting, Kayaking and Canoeing. Still water (Pond/Lakes): Water/Jet Skiing, Kayaking, Sailing and Rowing.
Sea/Oceans: Windsurfing, Sailing and Scuba Diving.
- Details of locations where popular adventure sports are conducted are as under:
- Mountaineering: Himalayan States of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, West Bengal and Arunachal Pradesh
- Trekking: All the Himalayan States, North East Region, Sahyadris and Western Ghats.
- Rock Climbing: All across the Country.
- Sport Climbing: More than 150 walls established across the country. Very popular among States of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal, Sikkim, Manipur and Delhi.
- Snow Skiing: Gulmarg in Jammu & Kashmir, Solang valley- Manali and Narkanda in Himachal Pradesh and Auli in Uttarakhand.
- Paragliding: Bir Billing, Manali and Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh, Pune and Nashik in Maharashtra, Vagamon in Kerala, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh.
- White water Rafting and Kayaking: Rishikesh in Uttarakhand, Manali in Himachal Pradesh, Zanskar in Ladakh, Teesta river in West Bengal.
- Scuba Diving: Goa, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep Island, Mangalore and Pondicherry.
The Government of India, in order to promote adventure activities regularly provides financial assistance to organizations such as Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF), National Adventure Foundation (NAF), Sea Explorer’s Institute under the National Programme for Youth and Adolescent Programme (NPYAD) Scheme to conduct adventure activities including training, awareness camps, seminars, workshops, film/slide shows, exhibition etc. In addition the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling, West Bengal and the Jawahar Institute of Mountaineering and Winter Sports, Pahalgam, Jammu & Kashmir are the other national level institutions which receive regular share grants under the scheme for promotion of adventure. The Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF) is recognized by the Government of India as the apex body to oversee mountaineering activities in the country and to control the expeditions in the mountain peaks within the geographical territory of the country in consultation with Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Home Affairs.
This information was given by the Minister of State (I/C) Shri Kiren Rijiju in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.
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YKB/TFK