In a significant step towards promoting adventure tourism in India the Government has opened 137 Himalayan mountain peaks to foreigners for mountaineering and trekking. The 137 peaks are located in the states of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and the soon to be union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The highest number ie. 51 peaks have been made accessible to foreigners in Uttarakhand, 24 peaks are made accessible in Sikkim, 46 in Himachal Pradesh and 15 peaks in Jammu and Kashmir.
Shri Prahlad Singh Patel, the Minister of State for Culture and Tourism (IC) expressed his gratitude to the Home Minister, Shri Amit Shah for accepting the request of his ministry to open up more peaks to foreigners. He described it as a ‘historic step’ towards promoting adventure tourism in the country.
While addressing the Tourism Ministers from States/UTs at the National Tourism Conference in New Delhi, the Tourism Minister stressed on the need for ensuring safety of travelers who go for adventure tourism. He appealed to the states to exercise utmost caution while registering adventure tourism operators and to ensure that the adventure tourism guidelines are implemented.
The comprehensive Indian Adventure Tourism Guidelines which was released in 2018 cover land, air and water-based activities which includes mountaineering, trekking, scuba diving, bungee jumping, paragliding, kayaking, snorkeling, river rafting and among other sports.
