The Maharashtra department released a draft policy for regulating adventure tourism activities and safety guidelines, triggering debate. The Maha Adventure Council (MAC) organized a panel discussion with 7 subject matter experts to discuss the draft. The panelists elaborated on the history of previous erroneous regulations and clarified that those participating in mountaineering or competitive sports are excluded. MAC emphasized that safety regulations are important but the current draft has errors and all stakeholders should provide feedback. MAC is committed to pursuing all feedback with authorities to ensure new regulations benefit the adventure sector only if safety is upheld while keeping adventure as a hobby and tourism for recreation.

1. Press Note
On September 17, the Dept. of Tourism, Maharashtra department released a draft
of a new 'Policy for Adventure Tourism Activities'. It includes proposed set of
rules for regulation for organized adventure activities and also Safety Guidelines
for the same. This has caused a great deal of turmoil in the field of adventure,
triggering a heated debate. In this context, MAC (Maha Adventure Council)
organized a panel discussion on September 27 which drew participation from
many people from this field.
On behalf of MAC, the panelists included seven subject matter experts (Dilip
Lagu, Abhay Ghanekar, Shantanu Pandit, Shirish Sahasrabudhe, Avi Malik,
Rajesh Gadgil and MAC President Vasant Limaye) with Dr. Milind Chitale as the
compere. The panelists discussed elaborated the history of the current draft GR,
as well as the previous erroneous and impractical GR of 2014 and 2018. It was
clarified that thosewho do ‘adventure for the sake of adventure ’(mountaineering,
rock climbing, etc.) and/or participate in competitive adventure sports are
excluded from the proposed policy. MAC's clarified its stance that the Safety
Guidelines should be kept out of the GR.
Initially, external regulation in any field may seem oppressive, but it was
emphasized that suchregulations are essential forsafety in all adventure activities.
It was pointed out that the present draft GR was also not perfect and had many
errors and ambiguities. Experts in the field and all related stakeholders were urged
to report their suggestions and objections to the Government as well as to MAC.
Mac will be committed to pursuing all these suggestions / objections with the
respective authorities.
A recording of the seminar is available on MAC’s Facebookpage. To join MAC
in this effort, you could send your suggestions or objections to
mahaadventurecouncil@gmail.com or 932243 79484 (WhatsApp).
This new regulation will be a boon for the adventure sector only if
There is an urgent need for everyone in the adventure sectorto come together for
upholding the concern for safety in adventure activities, keeping the concept of
'Adventure for Hobby and Tourism for Recreation’ clear in everyone’s mind.
Only then the proposed new GR will prove to be a boon for this field.