Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu has called for stricter safety measures in adventure sports after the death of a 27-year-old entrepreneur from Tamil Nadu. Jeyesh Ram, the son of Mr Vembu’s close friends, died in a paragliding accident in Kullu, Manali, on Friday.

“Way too many accidents happen with sickening regulatory there, and I am deeply saddened Jeyesh became the latest statistic,” Mr Vembu, who attended the funeral, shared in a post on X. “Much stronger regulatory oversight required here,” he added.

Yesterday I had the very sad duty to attend the funeral of Jeyesh Ram, 27 year old son of my dear friend Cibi Anand and Priya. He lost his life in a para-gliding accident in Kulu, Himachal Pradesh last Friday.

Way too many accidents happen with sickening regulatory there and I… pic.twitter.com/dZsmE0hW5M

— Sridhar Vembu (@svembu) January 19, 2025

Jeyesh Ram, a resident of Vigneshwara Nagar in Tirupur, Tamil Nadu, was on a tandem flight when his paraglider collided mid-air with another. The paraglider collapsed, causing a fatal fall. Mr Ram was declared dead on arrival at a hospital, and the pilot, Ashwani Kumar, sustained severe injuries and was referred to PGIMER, Chandigarh, for treatment.

Mr Ram was the founder of Tools Hub, a fast-growing hardware retail store franchise backed by Zoho, Mr Vembu said. Remembering the young entrepreneur, he described him as “a dashing young man, very kind to his employees and all those around him. He had the world ahead of him.”

Mr Vembu also talked about Mr Ram’s adventurous spirit. “He was a risk taker. So am I, but even at his age, I would do a risk analysis and would have declined paragliding in Kullu as too accident-prone,” he wrote. The 57-year-old warned other young people to “avoid bad risks like this.”

Preliminary investigations revealed the pilot attempted a 360-degree swirl, causing the collision. While the other glider managed to stabilise, Mr Ram’s collapsed, resulting in the fall. “The victim’s family has been informed about the incident,” said Vikas Shukla, Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Kullu, in a statement to The Indian Express. A magisterial probe has been ordered.

Sridhar Vembu urged regulators to take a “good look at this”, saying, “I hope his death does not go in vain.”

Seven paragliders, including foreigners, have died in Himachal Pradesh in the past 18 months. Paragliding at Gadsa was banned in January 2023 for safety issues but reopened a month later.

Panaji:

A 27-year-old woman tourist and her instructor were killed after they crashed into a ravine while they were paragliding in North Goa, police said on Sunday. The accident occurred at Keri village on Saturday evening, an official said.

Shivani Dable, a resident of Pune, and her instructor, Sumal Nepali (26), a Nepalese national, crashed to death at Keri Plateau around 5 pm, he said.

The official said Dable had opted to paraglide with an adventure sports company operating illegally.

As per the complaint, the paraglider plunged into a ravine soon after it took off from a cliff, killing the duo on the spot, he said.

A case has been registered at Mandrem police station against company owner Shekhar Raizada under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita for endangering human life.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Shimla:

A Belgian paraglider was killed after colliding with another paraglider mid-air in Himachal Pradesh’s Bir-Billing as his parachute failed to open after the crash, officials said on Wednesday.

The accident took place on Tuesday, four days ahead of the week-long paragliding World Cup 2024 commencing in Bir-Billing in Kangra district on November 2.

The two paragliders collided mid-air, leading to the death of Feyarets, a Belgian, while the other paraglider from Poland sustained injuries. Feyarets was a free-flying paraglider in his mid-60s, the officials said.

Ten paragliders were flying simultaneously and two of them crashed with each other mid-air. Feyarets died as his reserved parachute did not open after the crash, Vinay Dhiman, Deputy Director, Tourism, Kangra, told PTI.

Chances of accidents increase when free-fliers venture into high-risk zones or inner valleys with little knowledge of the topography and local wind conditions, Mr Dhiman said, adding, “We are in the process of documenting the thermals in the Bir-Billing area with the help of experts to reduce the probability of accidents while flying.” This is not the first time that tragedy has struck the famed slopes of Bir-Billing, considered to be a paragliders’ paradise.

In October last year, Polish paraglider Andrez died during a solo flight.

Kangra Superintendent of Police Shalini Agnihotri said police have directed authorities to register paragliders, adhere to the designated routes and ensure that they do not fly over military areas.

“A proposal to install special towers in high mountains to pin-point the crash sites in case of accidents is in the pipeline,” said Avinash Negi, director of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports (ABVIMAS) in Manali.

The World Cup from November 2 to November 9 will see 130 paragliders from 50 countries participate. 

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)