four years ago nimesh mehta took off from the hills on a pair of borrowed wings the assisted paragliding was so thrilling that the borivlibased ophthalmologist did a course last month with his daughter and came out with flying colours as a solo paraglider it was great to learn something new after a long time says the 44yearold doctor increasingly hundreds of mumbaikars like him have begun to head outside the city for a spot of adrenaline rush for some it is paragliding along the ghats or parasailing by the sea for others lone bungee jumping and skydiving options offered by resorts are enticing enough rise in demand has not translated into increased regulation though as safety takes a second place some of these adventure sports have ended in horrific tragedies the latest being the death of a woman skydiver in tamil nadu on thursday after her parachute malfunctioned two years ago paraglider khwaja ahmed fell to his death in kamshet in 2007 keval shah from juhu was killed while landing while instructors say these are oneoff cases survivors blame carelessness of organizers i had multiple fractures because i was not strapped to the device while parasailing in goa says a mumbai professional it is the thrill of overcoming fear though that makes several take to the sports in the first place every weekend kamshet sees around 2530 people who want to learn paragliding says manoj roy president of paragliding association of india pai an equal number come for joyrides as kamshet a hub of paragliding is around 120km from the city it attracts several mumbaikars we introduced skydiving in january 2013 and extended it till march our parachutes are such that if the person is unable to open them they get activated on their own says an official with aamby valley resort in lonavla della resorts which started bungee jumping six months ago continued through the rains sanjay rao founder of nirvana adventures who has been teaching paragliding for over a decade says demand for adventure sports coincided with the opening of mumbaipune expressway in 2002 it became easy for people to drive down rise in disposable income added to the rush meanwhile pai has begun drafting guidelines based on existing regulations in other countries however the association has just five institutes affiliated to it so far we are just a regulatory body and anyone can set up an insitute says roy paraglider dr mehta says i am a surgeon and sometimes there are accidents that doesnt mean you stop operating but you take more precautions